Huskies open February with Peacocks, Warriors

ST. CLOUD, MINN. – It may seem like it's gone quick, but it's already the final month of the regular season for the St. Cloud State University men's basketball team. With eight games remaining on the schedule, the Huskies are already in prime position to play in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) tournament at the end of the month, but there's also plenty of time to move up the conference standings as well. This weekend, St. Cloud State has the perfect opportunity to do just that as the team hosts Upper Iowa University Friday and Winona State University Saturday.

This is the final home series for the Huskies until February 23-24, when they host Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State in the final NSIC weekend of the regular season. Currently, St. Cloud State holds the No. 2 spot in the NSIC North standing after splitting its series with Northern State and MSU-Moorhead one week ago.

On the flip side, Upper Iowa and Winona State sit toward the bottom of the NSIC South standings. Technically, Winona State sits in a tie for fifth in the standings, as the Warriors are tied with SMSU with a conference record of 6-8 and an overall record of 9-11. Upper Iowa currently sits at the very bottom of the NSIC South standings, as the Peacocks have complied an overall record of 6-14 with a 3-11 mark in NSIC play.

Fans who cannot attend the game in person can follow along via live stats, video and WJON's live radio broadcast. Score updates can also be found on St. Cloud State men's basketball official Twitter page (@SCSUmensbball).

Here are the five things to know before this weekend's series:

-18/18 – It has been by far the coldest week in St. Cloud, Minnesota this winter, as temperatures have reached as low as -20 degrees without the wind chill. According to several car thermometers and the weather.com app, it was -18 degrees in St. Cloud Thursday morning. However, the weather is expected to do nearly a full 180 over the weekend, as its projected to be 18 degrees in Minnesota on Friday and get as high as 32 and 40 Saturday and Sunday.

17 – The Huskies nearly overcame their biggest halftime deficit of the season last Friday, as they trailed Northern State 44-27 and nearly came back to defeat the Wolves before falling 77-73. In fact, St. Cloud State outscored Northern State 46-33 in the second half thanks to .543 percent shooting from the floor and an outstanding scoring barrage from Gage Davis (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Bolingbrook), Brindley Theisen (St. Cloud, Minn. / St. Cloud Cathedral) and Sean Smith (Seville, Spain / Canarias Basketball Academy).

30/30 – The Huskies put together their own version of "30 for 30" against MSU-Moorhead on Saturday, as Davis and Smith each scored 30 points a piece in the victory. For Smith, it was a career high, as he tallied 30 points in 30 minutes of play and also pulled in 10 rebounds for the double-double. Davis tallied 30 points for the third time this season thanks to 13-21 (.619) shooting from the floor.

78.7 – Upper Iowa has had no issues scoring this season, as the Peacocks have scored an average of 78.7 points per game this season. It's defense that has been an issue for Upper Iowa. In addition to scoring a lot of points, the Peacocks also give up a lot of points, as they surrender an average of 87.1 points per game to their opponents this year, the worst number in the NSIC.

5.1 – Winona State's Devin Whitelow is very good at the whole assist thing this 2018-19 season. Through 14 conference games, Whitelow is averaging 5.1 assists per game, which ranks fourth overall amongst all NSIC players. However, he currently leads the NSIC in assists to turnover ratio, as his 5.5 ratio is the tops in the NSIC by quite a large margin. Second on the list is none other than Upper Iowa's Kyler Haber whose 2.9 assist to turnover ratio is the second best in the conference.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Gage Davis

Sean Smith

Brindley Theisen

Saint Cloud State University Athletics