Men’s Basketball Takes on Sioux Falls on Saturday in Second Round of NSIC/Sanford Health Men’s Basketball Tournament

Sioux Falls, S.D. – The St. Cloud State men's basketball team (22-7) continues NSIC/Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament play by taking on Sioux Falls (20-9) in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Saturday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. at the Sanford Pentagon in the quarterfinals.

Scouting Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls, who are seeded third in the NSIC South, earned a 98-68 victory over Minnesota Crookston at home on Wednesday, Feb. 21, to advance to the quarterfinals.
USF shot a season-best 60.3 percent from the field in the victory.
Sioux Falls has now won three straight opening round games.
The Cougars have won three straight games and eight of the last 10 games.
Trevon Evans led the team with 23 points.
Drew Guebert tallied 20 points with Aaron Rothermund recording 17 points.
Evans took home a pair of NSIC All-Conference honors as he was named First Team All-NSIC and was named the league's Newcomer of the Year.
He leads the team with his average of 21.4 points per game.
Evans is also shooting 46.7 percent from the field, 39 percent from three-point range and 79.5 percent from the foul line.
He is also pulls down 4.9 rebounds and leads the team with his 91 assists.
Guebert is putting up 19.8 points per game to place second on the squad.
He is also averaging a team-leading 5.9 rebounds per game and has a team-high 23 blocks.
Jerrod Walton totals 14.1 points per game.
Sioux Falls is averaging 80 points per game, while shooting 46.8 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from three-point range and 72.8 percent from the free throw line.
The program has scored 80 or more points in 15 games including a season-high of 98 against Minnesota Crookston last time out.
Sioux Falls is coached by Chris Johnson, who is in his 10th year running the program and 11th season overall as a collegiate head coach.

Prior Meetings

St. Cloud State is 11-2 all-time against Sioux Falls since the teams started meeting in 1986-87 including wins in the last two games of the series.
The Huskies have won seven of the last eight meetings of the series including an 86-75 win over Sioux Falls at the 2013-14 NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament.
The team beat the Cougars 88-82 back in December (12/9).
Jon Averkamp led the team with 27 points and eight rebounds.
Sean Smith had 18 points and eight rebounds.
Adam Heede-Andersen picked up 18 points and 10 assists.
Brindley Theisen totaled 12 points and six rebounds.
St. Cloud State was able to defeat USF on the road last season by a 90-74 score (12/9/16).

Listen to The Games
The game will be aired live on Granite City Sports (1390 AM) with J.W. Cox on the call. All SCSU games can also be heard online at www.1390granitecitysports.com

The majority of the SCSU games can also be heard on the KVSC Sports Stream

Live Stats/ Live Video Anyone?

Live video for all the tournament games can be found at this link

The NSIC in running live stats for the quarterfinals and each round after here

Read This Week's Game Notes
A complete collection of interesting game notes, stats, rosters and records is available weekly in the SCSU Basketball Notes Package.

Notables

SCSU earned the number two seed in the North Division after going 17-5 overall in NSIC play this season.
After beating Wayne State earlier this week, St. Cloud State has won at least a game at the NSIC Basketball Tournament in eight of the 10 years being in the league.
The program is 46-42 all-time in post-season play dating back to 1945-46 and are 13-7 in the NSIC post-season tournament.
The program ended the season with a 13-2 mark at Halenbeck Hall this season and went 13-4 in home games last season.
SCSU is 46-16 at Halenbeck Hall since the start of the 2014-15 season.
The team won 11 straight games at home with the last home loss coming to Southwest Minnesota State in early December (12/9/17).
The team's 17 league wins this season tied the school record set by the 2013-14 team.
The 22 wins on the campaign this year are the most since the 2009-10 team won 29 games and eighth time since the 2004-05 that the program has won 20 or more games.
The program is ranked fifth in the Central Regional following the release of the second edition of the regional rankings.
St. Cloud State defeated Wayne State by an 81-57 score in the first round of the NSIC/Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament.
The program has now defeated the Wildcats in each of the last 11 contests and improved to 22-3 all-time against WSC.
Brindley Theisen led the team with his 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the field including four made threes.
It was the seventh time this season that Theisen has been the team's leading scorer and his 20th game in double figures.
Gage Davis had 18 points and a team-leading seven rebounds plus four assists.
He has scored in double figures in 20 of the 21 games that he has played in.
Jon Averkamp totaled 17 points, four rebounds and three steals.
Averkamp has gotten into double figures in 25 of the team's 29 games.
Sean Smith picked up 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Smith has double figures in 19 games.
Andy Foley scored 10 points with six rebounds.
It was his sixth game in double figures this season, but first since he scored 15 against Winona State (1/13).
The program won the battle of the boards against the Wildcats are 20-2 when holding a rebounding edge and 2-5 when trailing in the battle of the boards.
The program shot above 50 percent from the field against WSC (58.2 percent) and are 17-1 when shooting above 50 percent in a game this season
SCSU is 22-3 this season when scoring 69 or more points and 4-7 when allowing 69 or more points.
The Huskies had three players that earned NSIC All-Conference honors this season with Averkamp and Davis captured first team honors and Smith earning honorable mention all-NSIC distinction.
St. Cloud State ranks in the top half of the conference in assist-turnover ratio (1.70 – 1st), assists per game (17.4 – 1st), blocked shots (4.4 – 2nd), fewest turnovers (297 – 6th), field goal percentage (50.4 – 2nd), field goal percentage defense (44.7 – 4th), offensive rebounds per game (9.24 – 6th), rebounding margin (3.6 – 3rd), scoring defense (68.0 – 2nd), scoring margin (11.0 – 2nd), scoring offense (79.0 – 7th), steals per game (6.5 – 3rd), three-point defense (35.4 – 4th), three-point field goal percentage (39.2 – 7th), total assists (504 – 1st), total blocks (127 – 2nd), total rebounds (994- 8th), total rebounds per game (34.28 – 8th), total steals (189 – 3rd), turnover margin (2.5 – 2nd), turnovers forced per game (12.76 – 3rd), turnovers per game (10.2 – 6th) and win-loss percentage (75.9 – 2nd)
Averkamp is sixth in the NSIC in scoring at 17.8 points per game.
He leads the league in field goal percentage (62.4) shooting (209-for-335), which is even more impressive since he has taken the 16th-most shots in the league through the regular season
He also leads the team in three-point percentage (57.9).
Smith is second in the league blocked shots a contest (2.52), third in defensive rebounds per game (5.90) and rebounds per game (8.3)
He is third in offensive rebounds (2.45).
He has reached double figures in rebounds in 10 games including eight double-doubles.
Smith is also averaging in double figures on the season at 11.4 points per game.
His 73 blocks represent 57 percent of the team's blocked shots this season (73-of-127).
Theisen is third on the team with his average of 13.4 points per game.
He has scored in double figures in 20 of the 29 games
Theisen is second in the league in three-point percentage (42.6), third in three-point field goals per game (2.76), three-point attempts (188) and total three-pointers made (80).
Junior Adam Heede-Andersen is 14th in the league in assists per game (3.3), 13th in total assists (96) plus ninth in assists to turnover ratio (2.23).
He is also third on the team in steals (27).
Six players on the have played in all 29 games this season with three (Averkamp, Theisen and Smith) starting all of them.

Up Next

If the team wins, and defeats Sioux Falls in the quarterfinals, they advance to take on the winner of S1 Southwest Minnesota State / S5 Augustana at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 26, at the Sanford Pentagon in the semifinals.
The program is 40-21 all-time against SMSU, but have lost the last two games to the program.
The Huskies lost to Southwest Minnesota State by an 82-59 score earlier this season in December (12/9) at home.
Brindley Theisen led the team with 13 points in the contest.
Jon Averkamp had 10 rebounds
Trevon Marshall had 12 points.
Andy Foley totaled 10 points and six rebounds.
The team is 48-40 all-time against Augustana.
The program defeated the Vikings by an 80-63 score in late January (1/27).
Theisen went off for a career-high 29 points and came within on three of tying the school record for threes (8).
Gage Davis had a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds
Averkamp totaled 17 points and five rebounds.