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M State struggles against Wildcats 88-58
Published 7:26am Thursday, November 15, 2012The M State Spartans had their hands full on Wednesday night when a very respected NDSCS Wildcat team entered the gym.
The Spartans fell by a score of 88-58, moving their record to 1-1 for the season.
M State won the tip and came down the court and Sophomore captain Rapheal Cabaniss came down the court, pulling up and hitting a three pointer that gave the Spartans an early 3-0 lead.Unfortunately for M State, that was the only lead they would hold all game.
The Spartans shot 5 for 32 in the first half giving them a whopping 15 percent from the field.
The Wildcats were more on target as they hit 21 for 35 of their shots to give them a convincing 48-16 halftime lead.
“Wahpeton is a great team and they came very prepared” said Spartan Head Coach Josh Mohagen.
The Spartans came out strong in the second half and finally started to find the basket scoring 42 points, but the Wildcats answered with 40 of their own to ride out a 88-58 victory.
NDSCS was led by Bretson McNeal who had 15 points and nine rebounds, Eric O’Neal also had 14 points and eight rebounds.
Shane Bosek paced the Spartans leading the team with 13 points, Freshman Chuckie Smith had 12 and Boomer Blossom had 10.
M State could not seem to get in rhythm finishing the game with only four team assists. The Spartans also lost the match up on the boards as the Wildcats outrebounded M State 51-38, which turned out to be the difference in the game.
“I loved our enthusiasm in the second half and we really battled back hard, we showed that we could play with anybody.” Mohagen added.
The Spartans look to right the sails as they host the Central Lakes Raiders this Saturday at 3 p.m. for their third home game of the year.
