Wayne State 79 Morningside 74
Wayne State sophomore guard Elijah Miller matched his career-high with 14 points, all coming in the second half that included 10 of 13 from the free throw line, as the Wildcats held off a late Morningside rally for a 79-74 non-conference men's basketball win over the Mustangs in Wayne Saturday night. WSC improves to 3-6 on the season with the win while Morningside falls to 7-6.
The Wildcats never trailed in the game, but had to hold off a second half Morningside rally that saw the Mustangs erase a 20-point WSC lead and get as close as one point before WSC was able to hold off the Mustangs for the win.
WSC jumped out to an early 15-2 lead with 13:33 left in the first half and held a double digit lead for a majority of the first half before taking a 35-27 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Wildcats built a 20 point lead at 51-31 with 14:46 remaining in the game, but Morningside came roaring back and got as close as one point on two occasions. Morningside's Eddie Mars made two free throws with 2:24 to play to make the score 69-68. A layup by Wayne State's Elijah Miller put the 'Cats up by three at 71-68 and then Mitch Carstens hit a jumper to pull the Mustangs within one again at 71-70 with 1:53 left. Miller converted a pair of free throws to put WSC back up by three at 73-70 with 1:26 remaining. The next possession saw Morningside miss two shots and then get fouled, but Adam Palmer could not convert on two free throws and the Mustangs had to foul WSC. Brett Spiker made a pair of free throws with 52 seconds remaining to put the 'Cats up by five. Wayne State's Elijah Miller then drained four of six charity tosses down the stretch to preserve the Wildcat win by the score of 79-74.
Spiker led three double digit scorers for Wayne State with 19 points and 16 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Brad Starken added another 19 points, going 7 of 12 from the field and 5 of 10 from the three point line. Miller finished with 14 points, all in the second half, to match his career-high. He was 10 of 13 from the free throw line.
WSC made 27 of 47 shots from the field to shoot 57.4 percent. The 'Cats were 8 of 14 from the three point line and 17 of 27 at the free throw stripe.
For Morningside, senior guard Mitch Carstens poured in a game-high 23 points while Eddie Marrs finished with 11. The Mustangs were 29 of 67 from the field (43.3 percent), 7 of 16 from the three point line and 9 for 13 from the free throw stripe. Morningside held a slight 35-31 edge in rebounding over the Wildcats as Carstens grabbed seven boards to lead the Mustangs while Spiker's 16 caroms led all rebounders for WSC. WSC had 15 turnovers in the game to 10 for Morningside.
Wayne State will be off until Wednesday, December 30th when the Wildcats visit Dakota State in a non-conference game starting at 7:00 p.m. in Madison, South Dakota.
