Men's Basketball: Warriors win double overtime thriller

Jeff Buck
Staff Writer

It was raining three pointers yesterday night as the Wayne State men’s basketball team defeated Northern Michigan in a heated double overtime duel.

Looking at the first half box score, it seemed unlikely that the finish to the Warriors’ home opener would come down to offense.

Wayne State’s offensive surge was enough to finish off Northern Michigan, 76-71, giving WSU its first win of the season last night at the Matthaei Center.

Defense was the name of the game in the first half for both teams. The Warriors pulled down 17 first-half defensive rebounds, led by Kris Krzyminski with five. WSU shot just 36 percent from the field and headed to the locker room with a seven-point lead at 28-21.

The story changed when the two teams exited the locker room and met back on the floor. The Warriors watched their seven-point lead disappear and found themselves in a shootout with the Wildcats.

With only 3:54 remaining in the game, Joe Carr hit two free throws to give Wayne State the lead as star NMU forward Ricky Volcy’s fouled out.

“Ricky is a good player — when he is in there, we go in and double him, and then that opens their outside shot,” said Wayne State head coach David Greer.

The game turned into the Carr and Krzyminski show, as the duo began to fire away from three-point range. Carr hit a game-tying three with 1:03 left in regulation, which sent the game to overtime after neither team was able to score another bucket.

Carr would sink two more threes in double overtime to lead the Warriors to victory. Carr finished 5-of-11 from behind the arc, which accounted for 15 of his 22 points.

“My teammates were looking for me tonight and made it easy,” Carr said. “It’s always a joy to step up in those situations.”

Krzyminski sank a three-pointer in the first overtime to tie the game at 57 apiece, and drilled another clutch triple in double overtime. He ended the night 3-of-6 from beyond the arc, contributing to a career-high 25 points. Krzyminski also led Wayne State with six assists and four steals.

And after coming off three straight loses on its season-opening road trip, Krzyminski feels the WSU team is starting to come together after a much-needed win.

“I think we have a very positive attitude, everyone knows Joe’s going to be one of our scorers, I’m going to be a scorer, and Will (Pierce), you know, those are going to be the main scorers,” Krzyminski said, “and so the big guys feed off that and play off of us and if we play good our team should do well.”

Pierce finished the game with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Wynn Sarden had eight points and 10 rebounds as well as two blocked shots. Jason Saddler played 12 minutes with three points, a steal and two rebounds. Off the bench, Michael Henderson had four points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots for the Warriors.

Northern Michigan’s top scorer was Will Washington, who finished 6-of-15 shooting for 16 points. Tyler Kazmierkoski pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds during his 30 minutes, and Volcy was held to nine points and seven rebounds.

The South End, November 22, 2006