Huskies stay close to home with road series at CSP, MSU

Friday, January 18

St. Paul, MN

7:30 p.m.

St. Cloud State

Concordia University, St. Paul

Photo by: Kylie Macziewski

1/17/2019 2:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

ST. CLOUD, MINN. – The team might be on the road, but the St. Cloud State University men's basketball team is about as close to the comforts of Halenbeck Hall as it can get. After earning two wins in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) play last weekend, the Huskies are once again hitting the road, this time to take on Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota State-Mankato this Friday and Saturday.

St. Cloud State is coming off another successful weekend in NSIC play, as it earned its biggest conference win of the season 84-59 over Minot State Friday before battling to a 60-58 victory over Mary Saturday. On the flip side, both the Golden Bears and Mavericks are coming off 1-1 weekends, as both tallied wins over Southwest Minnesota State but dropped their contests to Sioux Falls. Concordia-St. Paul tallied its second NSIC win of the season with a 76-70 victory over SMSU before dropping its contests against Sioux Falls 95-64. Minnesota State opened the weekend with its worse loss of the season, 74-46, at the hands of the Cougars before rallying for a 101-72 "W" over the Mustangs.

Live stats and video will be available for both Friday and Saturday's games, and fans can always tune in to WJON's live broadcast with JW Cox. Updates can also be found on St. Cloud State's official Twitter page (@SCSUmensbball) throughout both games.

Here are the five things to know before tip off this weekend:

270.4 – This will be one of the shortest NSIC road trips St. Cloud State makes this season. On Friday, the Huskies will travel roughly 72.5 miles to Concordia-St. Paul before making the 86.9 mile trek for Saturday's game in Mankato, Minnesota. In fact, the longest part of the road trip will be the team's two-hour drive from Mankato, Minnesota back to St. Cloud, which will bring the round trip to a grand total of 270.4 miles.

2160 – January 11 and 12 were a memorable two days for Huskies senior guard Gage Davis (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Bolingbrook). Thanks to his 32-point performance on Friday, Davis became St. Cloud State's all-time leading scorer, surpassing former standout Dan Hagen with 2137 points in his Husky career. After adding 23 points in Saturday's win over Mary, Davis now has 2160 points in his career at St. Cloud State and own three school records, including career points (2160), points scored by a freshman (570) and points scored by a sophomore (743).

100 – Davis didn't just make headlines by breaking a school record over the weekend. The senior, along with teammate Sean Smith (Seville, Spain / Canarias Basketball Academy) were named to the Small College Basketball's Bevo Francis Award Top-100 Watch List Tuesday morning for their outstanding play through the first half of the season. The Bevo Francis Award is given annual to the top men's basketball player within Small College Basketball's service, including the NCAA Divisions II and III as well as the NAIA, USCAA and NCCAA. Davis was previously named to both the Top-100 and Top-50 Watch List in 2016-17, while this is Smith's first appearance on the list.

27 – This will be the 27^th meeting between the Huskies and Golden Bears, with the Huskies holding a 20-6 record in the past 26 meetings. Last year, St. Cloud State defeated Concordia-St. Paul 94-56 behind double-digit scoring from Adam Heede-Andersen (Copenhagen, Denmark / Stenhus Gymnasium), Brindley Theisen (St. Cloud, Minn. / St. Cloud Cathedral) and Jake Mussman (St. Cloud, Minn. / Tech). In fact, both Heede-Andersen and Mussman tallied career-highs against the Golden Bears last year, as Heede-Andersen tallied 21 points and Mussman recorded 11.

3 – The Huskies and Mavericks faced off earlier this season in a nonconference competition in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Despite being down by 14-points in the second quarter, Minnesota State rallied for an 80-77 overtime victory over St. Cloud State, handing the then No. 13 ranked team in the country its first loss of the season. Davis was the leading scorer of the game with 28 points, while the Mavericks Cameron Kirksey (25/10) and Kevin Krieger (24/14) each tallied 20+ points and 10+ rebounds in the game.