Wayne State used 92 percent free throw shooting making 24 of 26 attempts to outlast Augustana 71-63 in Northern Sun Conference South Division men’s basketball played New Year’s Eve afternoon at Rice Auditorium in Wayne. The Wildcats improve to 11-3 and 6-2 in the NSIC while Augustana drops to 7-7 and 3-5 in league play.
The Wildcats jumped out to a quick 14-4 lead less than six minutes into the game. Justin Eagins hit back-to-back 3-pointers while Jordan Janssen added six points in the early WSC scoring run.
With WSC still leading 18-9, Augustana went on an 11-2 scoring surge and tied the game at 20-20 with 8:29 to play in the first half. The Vikings took their first lead of the game at 24-22 and held a three point lead at 32-29 before the Viking finished the first half with a 32-31 lead.
A Nate Mohr 3-pointer to open the second half gave Wayne State the lead for good at 34-32.
WSC pushed the lead to eight at 51-43 on a David Harmon 3-pointer at the 12 minute mark.
Augustana closed within two points several times with the final one coming at 57-55 with 5:47 to play.
Wayne State built the lead to eight again at 67-59 on a Jordan Janssen basket with 3:12 remaining.
The Vikings closed to within four at 67-63 and had a chance to get closer but missed a pair of free throws with 1:30 left.
Wayne State sealed the win with a pair of free throws by Janssen and Cody McCullough in the final 20 seconds to clinch the 71-63 victory.
Janssen finished the game with his third straight double-double and seventh of the season with 23 points and 10 rebounds, going 11 of 12 at the charity stripe. Nick Ferrarini added 12 points with Eagins scoring 10.
Wayne State made only 20 of 58 shots for 34.5 percent, including 7 for 27 behind the arc. But the Wildcats sank 24 of 26 free throws for 92 percent to just 7 of 12 for the Vikings in the win.
Akoi Akoi paced Augustana with 14 points while Ryan Miller and Brady Helgren added 12 and 10 respectively.
The Vikings shot 43.3 percent from the field making 26 of 60 shots but were just 4 of 20 from the 3-point line.
Augustana held a 40-36 edge in rebounding over the Wildcats with Janssen hauling in 10 boards for the ‘Cats.
Janssen had four assists, Eagins three steals and McCullough two blocks for the Wildcats.
Wayne State will play road games next weekend at MSU Moorhead Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Northern State Saturday in a 5:30 p.m. contest.
Wayne State women’s basketball came down to the end of the game against Augustana with AU topping WSC 80-77 inside Rice Auditorium on New Year’s Eve. Wayne State falls to 9-3 on the season with a 5-3 record in the NSIC South Division. Augustana with the win moves to 12-2 on the season with a 6-2 NSIC South Division record.
The Wildcats opened the game on a 7-2 run after a Logan Hughes three-pointer at the 8:27 mark in the first quarter. WSC would leas by as many as seven in the first quarter at 13-6 right before the media timeout at 5:07 in the first quarter. Augustana would take their first lead of the quarter at 14-13 with 2:15 left to play. AU built the lead to 19-15 by the end of the first quarter.
Wayne State would battle back to tie up the game at 20-20 in the second quarter behind five points from Lauren Zacharias with 7:24 left in the quarter. WSC would take the lead on their next possession behind a shot from behind the arc from Maya Fitzpatrick to make it 23-23. WSC would take a 26-23 lead into the media timeout at 4:59 mark of the second quarter. WSC increased the lead to as many as five in the quarter, but the Vikings battled back to tie it at 29 with 1:36 left to play in the half. WSC scored the last five points of the half to make it 34-29 at halftime in favor of the Wildcats.
At halftime, Fitzpatrick and Zacharias would each have eight points to lead WSC while Fitzpatrick, vanDonkersgoed, Hughes, Zacharias, and Pingel all had two rebounds for WSC. Wayne State was shooting 38.5 percent at halftime to Augustana’s 40 percent.
Augustana would open up the second half on a 8-0 run to force Wayne State to take their first timeout of the half at the 7:59 mark of the third quarter. WSC would break the 10-0 run after a driving layup from Zacharias to cut the lead to three with 7:34 in the third quarter. The two teams would trade baskets all the way to the media timeout where WSC had the lead 48-46 with 4:35 left in the third quarter. Another 8-0 run from the Vikings built the lead to 54-48 before WSC cut it to one at 53-52 with 3:15 left in the quarter. The Vikings would increase the lead heading into the fourth quarter leading 64-56.
The Vikings would build their lead to nine to open the fourth quarter at 67-58 with 8:30 left to play in the game. Wayne State would cut into the Vikings lead by the media making it a seven-point game behind an Abby Kopecky layup from Zacharias with 5:10 remaining in the contest. The teams would trade baskets out of the media timeout before WSC cut the AU lead to 73-70 with 2:07 left to play in the game. The Vikings would build the lead back up to six with 1:53 left in the game before a big turnover from AU led to a Pingel three-pointer to make the Viking lead two with 51 seconds left in the contest. Wayne State would get as close as one at 78-77 before AU hit three free throws making it 80-77 with two seconds left. Fitzpatrick was just short on the game tying three pointer with no time remaining giving the Vikings the 80-77 victory.
Zacharias and Pingel would each have 18 points to lead Wayne State while Kopecky, vanDonkersgoed and Zacharias each added four rebounds. Pingel would have three assists to lead the Wildcats while Fitzpatrick had five steals for the ‘Cats.
Wayne State shot 41.2% in the game to Augustana’s 49.2%. Wayne State was 10-24 from three (41.7%) to Augustana’s 9-19 (47.4%). WSC lead at the free throw line making 25-32 shots to AU’s 11-24.
The Wildcats hit the road next weekend for NSIC cross division games at MSU Moorhead Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Northern State Saturday in a 3:30 p.m. contest.
