Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wayne State 88 Bemidji State 87 OT
Redshirt freshman Marcus Messersmith drained a nearly 40-foot three pointer as time expired in overtime to give Wayne State College an exciting 88-87 win at Bemidji State in Northern Sun Conference men’s basketball Saturday evening in Bemidji, Minnesota. The Wildcats win for the first time in Bemidji since the 2002-03 season, snapping a five-game losing streak to the Beavers in Bemidji, and end the season with a record of 11-16 overall and 7-13 in the NSIC while Bemidji State finishes the season with records of 8-19 overall and 6-14 in league play.
Wayne State jumped out quickly on the Beavers, taking an 11-2 lead, their biggest lead of the game, with 15:15 to play in the first half. The Wildcats maintained a lead for a majority of the first half until Bemidji State closed the half on a 14-5 run over the final 5:20 of the half to take a 36-32 lead over the Wildcats. Bemidji State made the first basket of the second half to take their biggest lead of the game at six, 38-32 with 19:53 to play. Neither team then held more than a five point lead the rest of the way. Bemidji State had a 75-70 lead with 49 seconds left after Seth Haake made two free throws. Wayne State’s Brent Jackman then sank a three pointer to cut the Beavers’ lead to 75-73 with 40 seconds left. Later, Bemidji State’s Jake Lindstrom drained two free throws with 26 seconds remaining to push the Bemidji State lead back to three at 78-75. But Wayne State’s Jonathon Thomas connected on a three pointer with 11.2 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime tied at 78-78.
In the overtime session, WSC built a four point lead at 85-81, but the host Beavers came right back and knotted the score at 85-85. Bemidji’s Bryce Tesdahl hit a shot with nine seconds left in overtime to give the Beavers an 87-85 lead. WSC then drove the ball down the floor and found Messersmith, who sank the nearly 40 foot shot to win the game for the Wildcats.
Thomas led Wayne State in scoring with 21 points and became the 30th player in Wildcat men’s basketball history to surpass the 1,000 point mark. He finished his WSC career with 1,019 points. Junior center Brian Metz added 19 points while Messersmith finished with a career-high 12 points, all from the three point line, for his first career double digit scoring game as a Wildcat.
WSC shot 58.5 percent from the field (31 of 53) in the game, including 9 of 18 from the three point line. The ‘Cats were 17 of 20 from the free throw stripe.
For Bemidji State, Brady Fairbanks scored a game-high 28 points followed by Seth Haake with 24. The Beavers were 28 of 64 from the field for 43.8 percent and just 5 of 22 from the three point stripe. BSU was 26 of 31 at the charity stripe.
WSC held a commanding 40-22 edge in rebounding over Bemidji State thanks to nine boards from Thomas and a career-high eight caroms by Miller. Bemidji State’s top rebounder was Haake with five. The Wildcats were plaqued by a season-high 27 turnovers in the game to just 12 for Bemidji State.
Wayne State finished the season winning three of their last four games and lose three seniors. They are Jonathon Thomas, David Walters and Billy Delano.