St. Cloud State Men's Basketball Closes Regular Season with Home-and-Home

ST. CLOUD, Minn. - The St. Cloud State men's basketball team will close the regular season with a home-and-home matchup this weekend. The Huskies will hit the road to take on Bemidji State Thursday, Feb. 16 and then return home to face Minnesota Crookston Saturday, Feb. 18.

Thursday's game will tip-off at 5:30 p.m. while Saturday's game is set for 3:00 p.m. at Halenbeck Hall. 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 Bemidji State's men's basketball schedule page for Thursday's game while Saturday's will be available on the SCSU men's basketball schedule page. Senior Day will take place on Saturday as we will honor our senior athletes.

A Look Back
Last weekend the Huskies snapped a seven-game losing streak to come away with a weekend sweep of Minot State and UMary. Against Minot, the Huskies led 13-7 at the 14:30 of the first before the Beavers jumped by six, 19-13. At 6:16 it would be tied up at 24. Minot would just back up by six until the Huskies ended the half down 36-33. The second half opened with Minot State holding the lead until SCSU tied it up at 53. The score would go back and forth until Minto State stalled SCSU's offensive to go up by ten, 72-62, with 8:30 left. With 3:42 left, SCSU would go up 84-78 until Minot tied it up at 89 with 31 seconds left. Neither team would be able to make a play sending the game into overtime. The Huskies would hit the first points in OT and hold the lead the entire extra five minutes for a 107-105 victory.

Against UMary, the Huskies took control early to set the pace, never giving up the lead in the first 20 minutes. SCSU held a 15-4 lead until UMary cut it to 17-15 after a 7-2 run. St. Cloud jumped back up by 12, 30-18, at the 8:41 mark. From there, UMary would rally back anc cut it to a one-point game going into halftime. The Huskies headed into the locker room up 39-38. To open the second half, UMary went on a 7-5 run to take over the lead 45-44. From there, the momentum shifted back to the Huskies as they would go back on top and hold the lead for the rest of the game. At 6:54, SCSU led 68-56. The Huskies would lose Luke Taylor thirty seconds later as he was called for his fifth foul. Despite losing a big paint player, SCSU pushed on and held off the Marauders for an 80-70 victory.

St. Cloud State Huskies
The Huskies sit 9-16 overall, 6-14 in conference. St. Cloud sits 7th in the north and 14th overall in the conference standings. With the Huskies currently standing in the north, they are in the hunt for the 6th seed. SCSU will have to win out their next two games for a shot to become the sixth seed for a chance at a playoff berth. Matthew Willert leads the Huskies in scoring averaging 14.8 points per game shooting a .465 and 4.2 rebounds per game. Luke Taylor averages 12.8 points per game and 4.6 rebounds. Ryan Bagley is leading with assists at 131 which places him second in the NSIC averaging 5.2 per game.

Bemidji State Beavers
Bemidji State enters the weekend 17-9 overall, 12-8 in conference play. BSU sits fourth in the north and fourth overall in the conference standings. Last weekend, the Beavers split their weekend with ranked opponents. Bemidji State fell against No. 22 Northern State while taking down No. 23 MSU Moorhead beating the clock on a last second basket. The Beavers are led by junior forward John Sutherland who averages 19.9 points per game and 8.9 rebounds while ranking first in the conference for field goal percentage and rebounding while ranking fifth for scoring. Last time Sutherland faced-off against the Huskies, he put up a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds in BSU's loss to SCSU. Fifth-year guard Mohamed Kone averages 14.8 points per game, 5.5 rebounds, and 91 assists for the Beavers. Junior forward Dalton Albrecht adds 14.5 points per game and 4.8 rebounds.

St. Cloud State and Bemidji State will meet for the 155th time since the teams first met in 1922. SCSU leads the all-time series 103-52 over BSU while leading the series 43-30 while playing in Bemidji, MN. The last meeting between the two teams was earlier in the season where the Huskies took down the Beavers 81-70 at Halenbeck Hall.

Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles
Minnesota Crookston enters the weekend 2-24 overall, 1-19 in conference play. UMC sits eighth in the north and 16th overall in the conference standings. Minnesota Crookston has dropped their last four matchups with their only conference win against Southwest MN State on Jan. 28. The Golden Eagles are led by sophomore guard Blaize Sagna who averages 15.9 points per game with 4.4 rebounds. Junior guard Xzavier Jones averages 13.4 points per game with 5.2 rebounds.

St. Cloud State and Minnesota Crookston will meet for the 35th time with SCSU holding the all-time series lead 31-4 over UMC. The two teams met earlier in the season where the Huskies downed the Golden Eagles 81-67 at Halenbeck Hall.

Single game tickets are 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.

St. Cloud State Men's Basketball Closes Regular Season with Home-and-Home

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Players Mentioned

Ryan Bagley

Luke Taylor

Matt Willert

Saint Cloud State University Athletics