Seniors lift Huskies to 90-74 victory over UMC

Saturday, February 23

St. Cloud, Minn.

5:30 p.m.

St. Cloud State

21-7, 16-6NSIC

University of Minnesota Crookston

16-15, 9-13NSIC

Minnesota Crookston

St. Cloud State

The duo of Gage Davis (right) and Brindley Theisen (left) scored a combined 60 points for St. Cloud State Saturday evening.

Photo by: Kylie Macziewski

2/23/2019 8:09:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

ST. CLOUD, MINN. – It was the perfect ending to the St. Cloud State University men's basketball team 2018-19 regular season. The Huskies were not only able to avenge an early season loss to Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) foe the University of Minnesota-Crookston, but do it in dominating fashion. Fueled by a double-double from senior Gage Davis (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Bolingbrook) and 20+ points from Brindley Theisen (St. Cloud, Minn. / St. Cloud), St Cloud State took down its North Division for 90-74 Friday evening.

The Huskies trail 38-35 at the half despite red-hot shooting from Davis and Theisen, who scored a combined 26 points in the first half. Davis led the way with 14 points while Theisen added 12 as the two shoot over .500 from the floor by themselves. However, St. Cloud State initially had no answer for Crookston's Harrison Cleary and Chase Knickerbocker, who scored 12 and 16 points respectively to give the Golden Eagles their 38-35 advantage.

That was not the case in the second half of the game. Davis opened by scoring six consecutive points for the Huskies to tie the game at 41-41 before senior Sean Smith (Seville, Spain / Canarias Basketball Academy) gave St. Cloud State its first lead since the early minutes at 43-41. From that point on, it was all Huskies both offensively as defensively, as they went on a 10-2 run to take a 53-43 lead with 14:12 remaining in regulation.

Minnesota-Crookston did manage to get within three of the Huskies around the 13 minute mark, but again Davis and Theisen were there to keep the game just out of reach for the Golden Eagles. After drawing a foul on a three-pointer, Davis sunk three free throws to regain a nice six-point lead for the Huskies before Trevon Marshall (Evanston, Ill. / Evanston Township) and Theisen went on a nine point run of their own to give St. Cloud State a 67-56 advantage.

Again, the Golden Eagles managed to cut the lead to two with 4:32 remaining in the game, but that was the closest they would come to taking the game from St. Cloud State. The Huskies closed the game on an 18-5 run, securing the 90-74 victory with a jumper by senior Ryan Wynn (Bolingbrook, Ill. / Bolingbrook) in the closing seconds.

Davis ended as the game's leading scorer, tallying 36 points while pulling in a team-leading 10 boards for the double-double. Theisen closed the game with 24 points for St. Cloud State, while Marshall ended the game with 10.

With the win, the Huskies overall record improves to 21-7 and they close the regular season with a 16-6 mark in NSIC play. St. Cloud State will open the NSIC/Sandford Tournament at home on Wednesday, February 27 when the team hosts Upper Iowa University at 7:30 p.m. More information regarding ticket sales and other tournament information will be released Sunday.