Men's Basketball Report: February 3
Minnesota State 96, St. Cloud State 68
Duluth, Minn. -- Minnesota State defeated St. Cloud State, 96-68, Saturday in front of a crowd of 3,040 fans in Taylor Center's Bresnan Arena. The 96 points tied the season-high for MSU.
The win marked the first time that Minnesota State swept the regular-season series over St. Cloud State since the 1994-95 campaign.
The Mavericks were led in scoring by Luke Anderson's 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. Paris Kyles added 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 7-of-7 from the charity stripe to go with five assists and two steals.
In all, Minnesota State connected on 24 of its 26 free throw attempts while shooting tickling the twines at a 55 percent clip. The Mavericks also connected on 6-of-12 three-point baskets.
The Mavericks controlled the tempo early pushing a lead to many as 17 at 49-32 with 1:52 remaining in the opening half. St. Cloud State closed the gap to 49-36 at the break, however MSU opened the second half with a 10-2 run to push the lead to 21 and never look back.
Atila Santos added 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds, while Tony Thomason contributed 11 points.
The Mavericks owned the battle of the glass, outrebounding SCSU 42-24, including 12-8 on the offensive end. The Maverick defense also forced the Huskies into an icy 2-of-15 performance from beyond the arch.
St. Cloud State was led by Eric Bergstrom's 15 points, while David Dreas added 14.
Minnesota Duluth 63, Augustana 59
Duluth, Minn. -- In a hard-fought North Central Conference duel, UMD posted its second-straight victory by defeating the Augustana 63-59.
Minnesota Duluth build up 31-24 halftime lead, but when the two teams returned from the locker room for the second half, Augustana immediately went on a 13-4 scoring spree.
Matt Hockett's gritty performance over the ensuing eight minutes inspired the Bulldogs, who were trailing 41-39 at the 11:24 mark when Jordan Schade swished a 3-pointer to give UMD the lead for good.
Bryan Foss tallied 22 points and added nine rebounds while Schade added a career-high 13 points for UMD, which out-rebounded the Vikings 37-25.
Nick Olson paced Augustana with 17 points and six rebounds.
South Dakota 86, Nebraska-Omaha 67
Vermillion, S.D. -- South Dakota recorded its 13th consecutive home North Central Conference victory thanks to an 86-67 wire-to-wire win over Nebraska-Omaha played in front of 2,896 in the DakotaDome. This marked the first time since 2000-01 that the Coyotes swept the season series from UNO.
Eric Hall led five Coyote players that reached double-digits in scoring with 20 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including making 5-of-7 attempts from beyond the arc. Dylan Grimsley added 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor.
Mitch Begeman and Steve Smith each poured in 13 points, with Smith also leading USD with six rebounds and a season-high five assists. Tyler Cain made 6-of-7 shots from the field to go for 12 points along with equaling his season high with four blocked shots.
The Mavericks were led in scoring by Michael Jenkins who had 20 points. Denny Johnston added 15 points, while Jerry Bennett narrowly missed a double-double with a game-high 10 rebounds and nine points. UNO's Zac Robinson entered the game standing fourth in the NCC in scoring at 17.3 ppg, but was limited to just 1-of-6 shooting and five points by the Coyote defense.
South Dakota shot 57.4% from the field (19-of-34), including 60.0% in the second half alone (12-of-20) while holding the Mavericks to just 43.1% overall (22-of-52). USD made 55.0% of its three-point attempts (11-of-20), compared to just 33.3% for Nebraska-Omaha (6-of-18). The Coyotes also recorded five blocked shots on the night and only had two rejected themselves.
USD never trailed in the game as Grimsley scored on the game's opening possession to spark an 8-0 run out of the gate. The Coyote early onslaught continued as they opened up a 23-5 lead with 12:28 to go in the half, and eventually stretched the advantage out to 24 points with the score standing a 40-16 with 4:33 left on the clock. UNO was able to close the gap slightly, but still went into halftime on the short end of a 45-25 deficit.
Nebraska-Omaha came out stronger after the break
and eventually whittled the Coyote advantage down to 12 points with
the score 59-47 with 10:07 left on the clock. However, a quick 9-1
USD run put the lead back to 18 as the Mavericks were never able to
seriously contend from that point on.