Huskies travel to face Northern State, MSU-Moorhead

ST. CLOUD, MINN. – Every weekend is a big weekend for the St. Cloud State University men's basketball team, but none may be bigger than this upcoming road trip. With a little over a month remaining in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) schedule, the Huskies look to solidify their place in the conference standings as they travel to face Northern State University and Minnesota State-Moorhead this upcoming Friday and Saturday.

This weekend's series could have big implications within the NSIC North standings, as St. Cloud State, Northern State and MSU-Moorhead are all bunched near or at the top. Currently, the Wolves are once again the top team in both the division and conference with their impressive 10-2 record against NSIC opponents. The Dragons and Huskies are knotted in a tie for third place in the standings, as both have complied 7-5 records against conference foes this year.

Friday's game at Northern State is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. in Aberdeen, South Dakota with Saturday's game in Moorhead, Minnesota scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Live stats and video will be available for fans who cannot make the westward trek, as will WJON's live radio broadcast featuring the one and only JW Cox. Score updates will also be made to the team's official Twitter page (@SCSUmensbball).

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

3 – St. Cloud State will need to find a way to stop Northern State standout Parker Fox, also known as the back-to-back-to-back NSIC North Player of the Week. Fox has earned the conference's weekly honor for three consecutive weeks, leading the Wolves to victories over Augustana, Wayne State, Bemidji State, Minnesota-Crookston and Winona State. Fox earned the honor this past weekend after averaging 22.5 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and three steals in Northern State's road wins over the Vikings and Wildcats. More impressively, Fox shot .615 from the floor over the course of two games and recorded a triple-double in the win over Wayne State with 24 points, 15 rebound and 10 blocks, breaking Sean Smith's record for NSIC single-game blocks.

24.5/10.0 – First year guard Anthony Roberts (Chicago, Ill. / Oak Park) was a force to be reckoned with for the Huskies last weekend, averaging 24.5 points and 10.0 rebounds in two NSIC contests. In the games against Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota State, Roberts shot .577 from the floor, .429 from three-point range and went 16-20 from the charity stripe while setting career highs in points (29), minutes (40), field goals made (11), field goal attempts (18) and free throws made (11) over the weekend.

183 – St. Cloud State is coming off its most explosive offensive weekend of the season, as the team scored 183 total points in two games against NSIC opponents. In fact, the Huskies scored 100 points in regulation against a conference opponent for the first time since 2016-17 when they defeated Bemidji State by a final score of 101-86. However, St. Cloud State did score 100 points against an NSIC opponent at least once each of the last two seasons in overtime. In 2017-18, the Huskies scored exactly 100 points in a 102-100 overtime loss to Winona State and last season defeated Bemidji State 107-101 in double OT.

2-0 – Last year, St. Cloud State earned a key season sweep of MSU-Moorhead, beating the Dragons both on the road and at home in resounding fashion. In the first meeting between the two teams, the Huskies put up 99 points on MSU-Moorhead, beating the visitors by a final score of 99-84. Then, in a key game late in the season, St. Cloud State downed the Dragons in their own gym 94-88 behind 20+ point performances from Gage Davis and the aforementioned Smith, both of whom graduated after the season.

6 – Junior three-point specialist Ilya Tyrtyshnik (Kyiv, Ukraine / Kyiv Specialized School #49) made a career-high six threes in the Huskies 100-90 win over Concordia-St. Paul last Friday and scored a career-high 26 points in the game as well. In fact, Tyrtyshnik has scored 20+ points three times in 2019-20 with nine total double-digit scoring performances. In those games, St. Cloud State has posted a record of 7-2 and the team is just 3-6 when Tyrtyshnik scores less than 10 points in a game.

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Players Mentioned

Gage Davis

Anthony Roberts

Sean Smith

Ilya Tyrtyshnik

Saint Cloud State University Athletics