St. Cloud State Men's Basketball on the Road for a Pair of NSIC South Division Match-Ups

Friday, January 20

Marshall, Minn.

5:30 PM

St. Cloud State

Southwest Minnesota State

St. Cloud State Men's Basketball on the Road for a Pair of NSIC South Division Match-Ups

1/19/2023 1:31:00 PM | Men's Basketball

NSIC Network Varsity Network App Live Stats - SMSU Live Stats - USF

Huskies to take on SMSU & USF

ST. CLOUD, Minn. - The St. Cloud State men's basketball team will hit the road to face a pair of NSIC South Division opponents. The Huskies will take on Southwest Minnesota State on Friday, Jan. 20 and Sioux Falls on Saturday, Jan. 21.

Friday's game will tip-off at 5:30 p.m. at the R/A Facility in Marshall, MN while Saturday's game is set for 3:30 p.m. at the Stewart Center in Sioux Falls, SD. The NSIC Network will provide the game streams while Steve Linzmeier, the Voice of Huskies Basketball, will provide live audio coverage on the Varsity Network App. Live stats will be available on the home institutions men's basketball schedule page.

A Look Back
Last weekend the Huskies split their match-ups with Winona State and Upper Iowa. Against Winona State, the Huskies went up 14-12 at the 15:22 mark of the first period. Several minutes later it was tied at 22 each until the Huskies took charge as they continued to push to hold the lead at the end of the half up 39-33. During the second half, St. Cloud would hold a 14-point lead until the Warriors started to chip away, bringing the game to within five points with 5:57 left with the scoring being 63-57 still in favor of the Huskies. WSU would hit a layup with just 12 seconds left to make it a point game but the Huskies executed on their free throws to hold on for a 74-70 victory.

Against Upper Iowa the game would start out slow as the score was only 14-11 in favor of UIU at the 10:24 mark of the first half. St. Cloud struggled to get anything moving on offense as they would head into the locker room down 32-29. During the second half, SCSU would take over the lead 36-35 just four minutes into the half. St. Cloud would then go up by six points with 14:58 left until Upper Iowa tied the game at 51 each and would then go on a 10-2 scoring run over the Huskies. SCSU was unable to respond as UIU continued to bring the pressure and go up by 15 points with less than a minute left. In the end, St. Cloud would fall 72-57.

St. Cloud State Huskies
St. Cloud enters the weekend 7-10 overall and 4-8 in conference play. SCSU is seventh in the NSIC North Division and 14th overall in the conference. Junior forward Matthew Willert leads the Huskies in scoring averaging 15.5 points per game, 4.4 rebounds per game, and has a team high 36 three-pointers. Senior forward Luke Taylor is averaging 11.2 points per game and 5.2 rebounds. Fifth-year senior guard Ryan Bagley leads the team in assists with 87 which places him third in the NSIC averaging 5.1 per game.

Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs
Southwest Minnesota State will enter the weekend 11-6 overall and 7-5 in conference play. SMSU sits fourth in the NSIC South Division and eight overall in the conference. The Mustangs are coming off a weekend split with MSU Moorhead and Northern State. SMSU dropped to MSU Moorhead 77-75 and bounced back against Northern State 67-58. Sophomore guard Dunwa Omot leads the Mustangs in scoring averaging 14.8 points per game, 2.4 rebounds, and 22 steals. Junior center Jake Phipps leads the team in rebounding averaging 7.2 per game which places him seventh in the conference. Additionally, Phipps has 20 blocks this season along with teammate Majok Majouk. They sit third and fourth in the conference for blocked shots. SMSU has the number one scoring defense in the NSIC surrendering 62.3 points to opponents.

Sioux Falls Cougars
Sioux Falls enters the weekend 13-5 overall and 8-4 in conference play. The Cougars hold the top spot in the NSIC South Divisona and are fourth overall. USF is coming off a weekend split with Northern State and MSU Moorhead. The Cougars took down Northern State 70-68 and dropped 85-80 to MSU Moorhead. USF is led by graduate guard Matt Cartwright who is averaging 23.7 points per game which places him first in the NSIC for scoring. Additionally, Cartwright is first in the conference for three-point percentage (.465) and three-point field goals per game (4.0). Redshirt senior guard Chase Grinde leads the team in rebounding 6.2 per game. Redshirt freshman forward Zane Alm leads the conference in blocked shots averaging 1.6 per game.

Single game tickets for the season are now on sale at scsutickets.com. For all the latest on St. Cloud State men's basketball, stay tuned on scsuhuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.