Huskies hang on for 77-70 victory at SMSU

Friday, December 13

Marshall, MN

7:30 p.m.

St. Cloud State

6-4,3-1NSIC

Southwest Minnesota State University

3-7,0-4NSIC

St. Cloud St.

Southwest Minnesota State

Anthony Roberts recorded the first collegiate double-double of his career in Marshall, Minnesota Friday night.

Photo by: Kylie Macziewski

12/13/2019 9:43:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

MARSHALL, MINN. – The St. Cloud State University men's basketball team certainly knows how to get the blood pumping this 2019-20 season. So far, the Huskies have played in four games determined by less than 10 points, and Friday night's Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) contest at Southwest Minnesota State University was no different. In fact, this game was decided by seven points, but fortunately, it resulted in a victory for St. Cloud State, as the team hung on for an impressive 77-70 win over Southwest Minnesota State.

The Huskies first road win of the season did not come easily despite their early 11-2 lead over the Mustangs. In fact, four different St. Cloud State student-athletes scored in double-digits, led by Trevon Marshall's (Evanston, Ill. / Evanston Townships) impressive 25 point performance. However, the combined efforts of the Huskies almost wasn't enough to stop Southwest Minnesota State, as the Mustangs took several leads of their own in both the first and second halves. In fact, SMSU took its first lead of the game at 25-21 with 9:25 remaining in the first half before six unanswered points by Caleb Donaldson (Bloomington, Ill. / Bloomington) and Marshall regained a 27-25 advantage for St. Cloud State.

The two teams would trade baskets and leads for the remainder of the first half, and it was the Huskies to walked into the locker room with a 39-35 advantage over the Mustangs. St. Cloud State would hold its four point advantage for the opening three minutes of the second half, extending its lead to 45-38 over SMSU thanks to a hot start from Marshall. Like in the first, though, once the Mustangs offense got rolling it was hard to stop, as they whittled the Huskies lead to 45-43.

From that point on, St. Cloud State could never truly get comfortable even with its seemingly sizeable 58-50 lead with 12:47 remaining in the half. Every time the Huskies seemed to be pulling away, SMSU would get right back in it with three and eventually went on a 11-3 scoring run to tie things up at 61-61.

That was the last time the Mustangs would truly threaten, as St. Cloud State came through at the free throw line to clinch its 77-70 victory. In the final five minutes of play, the Huskies would score six points on layups and 10 from the charity stripe, including two by senior forward Diamond Onwuka (Barcelona, Spain / Canarias Basketball Academy) to clinch the 77-70 victory for St. Cloud State.

Marshall was the team's leading scorer Friday evening, as he put together another impressive performance for the Huskies, scoring 25 points on 8-15 shooting from the floor and a 9-11 mark from the free throw line. Joining him in double-digits were freshman Anthony Roberts (Chicago, Ill. / Oak Park), Onwuka and Ilya Tyrtyschnik (Kyiv, Ukraine / Kyiv Secondary School) who all had big nights for St. Cloud State. Roberts recorded the first double-double of his collegiate career, as he tallied 16 points and a team-leading 10 rebounds, while Onwuka and Tyrtyschnik scored 14 and 10 points respectively. The two Europeans additionally combined for 11 of the team's 14 steals.

With the win, the Huskies overall record improves to 6-4 and they are now 3-1 in NSIC play. St. Cloud State will return to action on Saturday, December 14 when the team travels to play the University of Sioux Falls at 5:30 p.m. in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.