Saturday, February 24
St. Paul, Minn.
5:30 P.M. CT
St. Cloud State
at
Concordia-St. Paul
Photo by: Jonathan Rozko
St. Cloud State Men’s Basketball Travels to St. Paul for Final Regular Season Game
2/23/2024 5:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Huskies look to use final game to improve conference tournament seed
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Men's Basketball (12-15, 8-13 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) heads to Concordia-St. Paul (9-18, 4-17 NSIC) Saturday for its regular season finale. The game will tip off at 5:30 p.m. at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.
FOLLOW THE HUSKIES
The game will be streamed live for free on the NSIC Network and broadcasted on The Varsity Network. Steve Linzmeier, the Voice of St. Cloud State Basketball, can be heard on the audio broadcast. Live stats will be provided by CSP. Links to each coverage option can be found on the St. Cloud State Men's Basketball schedule page.
SEEDING SCENARIOS
St. Cloud State clinched its spot in the NSIC Tournament last weekend and will know its opponent after all the games on Saturday night.
LAST TIME OUT
St. Cloud State traveled to Minnesota Duluth on Wednesday, for its second to last regular season game. The first seven minutes of the game were extremely defensive and both teams struggled to find their offensive footing. SCSU found itself holding an 11-7 lead after freshman Nate Dahl (Buffalo, Minn.) drained his second three pointer of the game. The game bounced back-and-forth for the next seven minutes, but Duluth started to take control, using an 8-0 to give it a 28-20 lead with 4:49 remaining in the half. The Bulldogs pushed their lead up to nine points but went into halftime leading 40-33 after Dahl finished a layup with five seconds left.
SCSU had its struggles defensively as UMD shot 48% from the field, but just 33% from beyond the arc. The Huskies had a solid offensive half themselves, shooting 41% from the field and 38% from three-point range, but defensive lapses hindered their ability to cut into the lead late in the half.
Coming out of halftime, the Huskies found new life on both ends of the floor. Freshman Wyatt Hawks (White Bear Lake Minn.) scored the first five points for St. Cloud State – finishing a layup and knocking down his second career three-pointer. The Huskies then tied the game after Dahl picked off Austin Andrews and took it coast to coast and finishing with a reverse layup. UMD took back the lead with a layup of its own, but freshman Jamiir Allen (Milwaukee) responded, cashing a step-back three to give SCSU a 43-42 lead ending a 10-2 run by St. Cloud State. UMD hit back with a 14-4 run which, giving it a 56-47 lead with 12:11 left in the game.
SCSU didn't back down, going on a quick 6-0 run to get back within three-points of Duluth who still led 56-53. With five minutes remaining in the game, the Huskies used great ball movement on offense, swinging the ball around the perimeter before entering it into graduate student Luke Taylor (Germantown, Wis.), who showed off his strength, finishing a layup through contact for the and-one. After converting on the free throw, the Huskies were made it a one possession game. Duluth responded to every run the Huskies made, killing any potential momentum the Huskies tried to gain.
Senior Matt Willert (Buffalo, Minn.) gave the Huskies life with a three-pointer at the 2:23 mark to cut the lead down to five, but a quick 9-0 run by the Bulldogs closed the curtains on the Huskies. Duluth went on to win 80-69 as the Huskies ran out of gas late.
Drew Blair led the Bulldogs with 31 points on 10-of-14 shooting and made four of his seven three-point attempts. Austin Andrews notched a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds with six of those rebounds coming on the offensive end.
Second chance points hurt SCSU as UMD used 12 offensive rebounds to tally 14 second chance points. Duluth was relentless attacking the paint, scoring 40 points in the paint for the game with 22 coming in the second half. The Bulldogs shot 60% from the field in the second half.
Nate Dahl led the Huskies, scoring a career-high 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting while cashing three of his six three-point attempts. The field goals and three pointers were a career-high for Dahl as he also recorded a career-high three steals. Allen also scored 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and tied his career-high of three three-point makes. Taylor was the final Husky that scored in double-digits with 13 points in 14 minutes off the bench. Taylor also shot an efficient 5-of-6 from the field while making both of his three-pointers.
Highlights from the game can be found on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
St. Cloud State Team Stats (NSIC Rank)
Saturday's matchup against Concordia-St. Paul will be the 33rd meeting between the programs. The Huskies hold a 25-7 advantage. St. Cloud State has won the last five matchups including their lone meeting earlier in the season.
The game earlier this season started off very slow for the Huskies and they quickly found themselves in a 9-0 deficit following an alley-oop dunk by CSP. Wyatt Hawks put St. Cloud on the board and scored the first four Huskies points. CSP knocked down a three-pointer to give it a 10-point lead at the 10:10 mark of the first half, but over the next seven minutes St. Cloud State used a 15-4 to take a 23-22 lead. Despite the slow offensive start, the Huskies would hold a 25-24 lead into halftime.
While the offense was still trying to find their groove, the St. Cloud State defense stepped up as, holding the Bears to 35% shooting and limited them to two of 10 shooting from beyond the arc. Forcing 11 first half turnovers, SCSU was able to score 11 points off those turnovers to fuel their offense.
Coming out of halftime, the duo of Matt Willert and freshman Anish Ramlall (Rosemount, Minn.) was unstoppable, scoring 17 of the first 19 points for the Huskies as SCSU started to take control of the game. SCSU, now holding a 44-32 lead, kept its foot on the gas and Nate Dahl finished a fastbreak layup while getting fouled. He later knocked home a three-pointer to give the Huskies a 50-32 lead. St. Cloud State started the half on an improbable 32-8 run, holding a lead as big as 35 points, cruising to a dominant 86-56 victory.
St. Cloud State's offense was firing on all cylinders in the second half, shooting 56% from the field and a scorching hot 64% from beyond the arc. The Huskies also converted on nine of their 14 three-point attempts. The Huskies defense held CSP to its lowest scoring output of the season, 56 points. It was the second fewest points allowed by St. Cloud State on the season.
Ramlall was the leading scorer for St. Cloud State with 14 points and tied his career high with four three-pointers. The freshman also recorded two assists and a steal. Nate Dahl had one of his best career games as a Husky as he recorded then career-highs of 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting while making two three-pointers. Hawks nearly recorded a double-double as he set then career-highs of 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds while shooting 50% from the field. Jamiir Allen had another solid outing for the Huskies, knocking down five of his eight field goal attempts on his way to an 11-point outing. The freshman also grabbed four rebounds, tied his career-high with three steals and cashed in a three-pointer. Willert was the final Husky that scored in double-digits, notching 11 points and setting then season-highs seven rebounds and three assists. He drained both of his three-point attempts.
SCOUTING CONCORDIA-ST. PAUL
The Golden Bears come into their regular season finale with a 9-18 overall record and a 4-17 conference record. CSP has lost eight consecutive games by a margin of 12 points and have been eliminated from making the NSIC Tournament.
CSP could potentially be without their three leading scorers on Saturday against SCSU. Senior Jordan Horn leads the Golden Bears with 20.5 points per game but has not played since January 19. Junior Marcus Skeete averages 15.6 points per game but has not played since February 10. Senior Antwan Kimmons averages 15.5 points per game and has not played since December 16.
In their absence, freshman Ben Kopetzki has picked up the scoring load for CSP. Kopetzki has scored 13+ points in 10 of his last 11 games including a career-high 24 points against Minot State this past weekend. The freshman shoots 44% from the field and 38% from beyond the arc while averaging 2.5 assists and 2.4 rebounds.
Sophomore Sean Mathieu has also stepped up in the absence of Horn, Skeete, and Kimmons. He comes into this game with an average of 8.1 points per game but has scored 10+ points in four of his past five games including a season-high 18 points against UMary. Mathieu also averages 3.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists on 45% from the field and 34% from three-point range.
Against SCSU earlier in the year, Kopetzki scored 7 points while playing 16 minutes off the bench. Mathieu played 25 minutes in a starting role, but only scored two points on 1-of-6 shooting.
Matt Fletcher is in his fourth season with Concordia-St. Paul as the head coach. CSP has struggled in Fletchers tenure with the program as they hold a 21-76 record, but every year they have shown growth and improvement while increasing their win total year in and year out. The Golden Bears have had an injury riddled season where Horn has only played 10 games and Kimmons eight. Before becoming the head coach of the Golden Bears, Fletcher was the head coach of Bethany Lutheran where he posted a record of 56-33 in his four years with the program.
Concordia-St. Paul Team Stats (NSIC Rank)
St. Cloud State senior Matt Willert (Buffalo, Minn.) became the 46th member of the St. Cloud State Men's Basketball 1,000-point club in the 68-61 win at UMary on December 12. Willert scored a game-high 16 points, including six points after he reached 1,000. He ended the night with 1,006 career points, moving him up to No. 45 on the all-time scoring list.
Willert current sits at No. 31 with 1,181 points. He passed Dean Kesler (1990-92 – 1,149 points) and Brindley Theisen (2015-19 – 1158 points) last week. He has played in 101 games (2,657 minutes) over the past four seasons for the Huskies. He averages 11.7 points per game for his career on 391-of-936 (41.2%) shooting from the field, 195-569 (34.3%) from three and 204-237 (86.1%) from the free throw line.
WILLERT WATCH
In addition to working his way up the all-time scoring list, senior Matt Willert is third on the career free throw percentage list (86.1%), 9th on the career three-point makes list (195) passing Nate Miller (2001-05 – 188) and Taylor Witt (2007-11 – 189) and 19th on the career blocks list (52). He made eight three pointers at Minnesota Crookston earlier this season, missing out on the single game record by one.
SHINING STAR
St. Cloud State freshman Lucas Morgan (Sydney, Australia) was named to the NSIC Men's Basketball Shining 5 by the league office on Nov. 11 for his efforts in his first two collegiate games. He averaged 17.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in just 24.5 minutes per game during the 2-0 weekend for the Huskies in Kansas City. He shot 68.4% (13-of-19) from the field and 57.1% (4-of-7) from behind the three-point line over the weekend. In his collegiate debut on Friday, he erupted for 25 points and grabbed six rebounds in an 80-73 win over Pittsburg State. In just his second collegiate game ever, he recorded his first career double-double (10 points and 11 rebounds) in a 74-64 win over Henderson State.
For all the latest on St. Cloud State Men's Basketball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
FOLLOW THE HUSKIES
The game will be streamed live for free on the NSIC Network and broadcasted on The Varsity Network. Steve Linzmeier, the Voice of St. Cloud State Basketball, can be heard on the audio broadcast. Live stats will be provided by CSP. Links to each coverage option can be found on the St. Cloud State Men's Basketball schedule page.
SEEDING SCENARIOS
St. Cloud State clinched its spot in the NSIC Tournament last weekend and will know its opponent after all the games on Saturday night.
LAST TIME OUT
St. Cloud State traveled to Minnesota Duluth on Wednesday, for its second to last regular season game. The first seven minutes of the game were extremely defensive and both teams struggled to find their offensive footing. SCSU found itself holding an 11-7 lead after freshman Nate Dahl (Buffalo, Minn.) drained his second three pointer of the game. The game bounced back-and-forth for the next seven minutes, but Duluth started to take control, using an 8-0 to give it a 28-20 lead with 4:49 remaining in the half. The Bulldogs pushed their lead up to nine points but went into halftime leading 40-33 after Dahl finished a layup with five seconds left.
SCSU had its struggles defensively as UMD shot 48% from the field, but just 33% from beyond the arc. The Huskies had a solid offensive half themselves, shooting 41% from the field and 38% from three-point range, but defensive lapses hindered their ability to cut into the lead late in the half.
Coming out of halftime, the Huskies found new life on both ends of the floor. Freshman Wyatt Hawks (White Bear Lake Minn.) scored the first five points for St. Cloud State – finishing a layup and knocking down his second career three-pointer. The Huskies then tied the game after Dahl picked off Austin Andrews and took it coast to coast and finishing with a reverse layup. UMD took back the lead with a layup of its own, but freshman Jamiir Allen (Milwaukee) responded, cashing a step-back three to give SCSU a 43-42 lead ending a 10-2 run by St. Cloud State. UMD hit back with a 14-4 run which, giving it a 56-47 lead with 12:11 left in the game.
SCSU didn't back down, going on a quick 6-0 run to get back within three-points of Duluth who still led 56-53. With five minutes remaining in the game, the Huskies used great ball movement on offense, swinging the ball around the perimeter before entering it into graduate student Luke Taylor (Germantown, Wis.), who showed off his strength, finishing a layup through contact for the and-one. After converting on the free throw, the Huskies were made it a one possession game. Duluth responded to every run the Huskies made, killing any potential momentum the Huskies tried to gain.
Senior Matt Willert (Buffalo, Minn.) gave the Huskies life with a three-pointer at the 2:23 mark to cut the lead down to five, but a quick 9-0 run by the Bulldogs closed the curtains on the Huskies. Duluth went on to win 80-69 as the Huskies ran out of gas late.
Drew Blair led the Bulldogs with 31 points on 10-of-14 shooting and made four of his seven three-point attempts. Austin Andrews notched a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds with six of those rebounds coming on the offensive end.
Second chance points hurt SCSU as UMD used 12 offensive rebounds to tally 14 second chance points. Duluth was relentless attacking the paint, scoring 40 points in the paint for the game with 22 coming in the second half. The Bulldogs shot 60% from the field in the second half.
Nate Dahl led the Huskies, scoring a career-high 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting while cashing three of his six three-point attempts. The field goals and three pointers were a career-high for Dahl as he also recorded a career-high three steals. Allen also scored 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and tied his career-high of three three-point makes. Taylor was the final Husky that scored in double-digits with 13 points in 14 minutes off the bench. Taylor also shot an efficient 5-of-6 from the field while making both of his three-pointers.
Highlights from the game can be found on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
St. Cloud State Team Stats (NSIC Rank)
- 73.7 points per game (10th) | 74.3 points per game allowed (10th) | -0.6 scoring margin (11th)
- 42.7 field goal percentage (14th) | 34.4 three-point percentage (9th) | 73.8 free throw percentage (8th)
- 46.2 opponent field goal percentage (12th) | 36.5 opponent three-point percentage (14th)
- 36.4 rebounds per game (7th) | 10.4 offensive rebounds per game (5th)
- 35.7 opponent rebounds per game (11th) | 0.7 rebounding margin (11th)
- 10.8 turnovers per game (6th) | 0.30 turnover margin (7th)
- 1.96 blocks per game (12th)
- 5.37 steals per game (9th)
- 13.07 assists per game (7th)
Saturday's matchup against Concordia-St. Paul will be the 33rd meeting between the programs. The Huskies hold a 25-7 advantage. St. Cloud State has won the last five matchups including their lone meeting earlier in the season.
The game earlier this season started off very slow for the Huskies and they quickly found themselves in a 9-0 deficit following an alley-oop dunk by CSP. Wyatt Hawks put St. Cloud on the board and scored the first four Huskies points. CSP knocked down a three-pointer to give it a 10-point lead at the 10:10 mark of the first half, but over the next seven minutes St. Cloud State used a 15-4 to take a 23-22 lead. Despite the slow offensive start, the Huskies would hold a 25-24 lead into halftime.
While the offense was still trying to find their groove, the St. Cloud State defense stepped up as, holding the Bears to 35% shooting and limited them to two of 10 shooting from beyond the arc. Forcing 11 first half turnovers, SCSU was able to score 11 points off those turnovers to fuel their offense.
Coming out of halftime, the duo of Matt Willert and freshman Anish Ramlall (Rosemount, Minn.) was unstoppable, scoring 17 of the first 19 points for the Huskies as SCSU started to take control of the game. SCSU, now holding a 44-32 lead, kept its foot on the gas and Nate Dahl finished a fastbreak layup while getting fouled. He later knocked home a three-pointer to give the Huskies a 50-32 lead. St. Cloud State started the half on an improbable 32-8 run, holding a lead as big as 35 points, cruising to a dominant 86-56 victory.
St. Cloud State's offense was firing on all cylinders in the second half, shooting 56% from the field and a scorching hot 64% from beyond the arc. The Huskies also converted on nine of their 14 three-point attempts. The Huskies defense held CSP to its lowest scoring output of the season, 56 points. It was the second fewest points allowed by St. Cloud State on the season.
Ramlall was the leading scorer for St. Cloud State with 14 points and tied his career high with four three-pointers. The freshman also recorded two assists and a steal. Nate Dahl had one of his best career games as a Husky as he recorded then career-highs of 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting while making two three-pointers. Hawks nearly recorded a double-double as he set then career-highs of 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds while shooting 50% from the field. Jamiir Allen had another solid outing for the Huskies, knocking down five of his eight field goal attempts on his way to an 11-point outing. The freshman also grabbed four rebounds, tied his career-high with three steals and cashed in a three-pointer. Willert was the final Husky that scored in double-digits, notching 11 points and setting then season-highs seven rebounds and three assists. He drained both of his three-point attempts.
SCOUTING CONCORDIA-ST. PAUL
The Golden Bears come into their regular season finale with a 9-18 overall record and a 4-17 conference record. CSP has lost eight consecutive games by a margin of 12 points and have been eliminated from making the NSIC Tournament.
CSP could potentially be without their three leading scorers on Saturday against SCSU. Senior Jordan Horn leads the Golden Bears with 20.5 points per game but has not played since January 19. Junior Marcus Skeete averages 15.6 points per game but has not played since February 10. Senior Antwan Kimmons averages 15.5 points per game and has not played since December 16.
In their absence, freshman Ben Kopetzki has picked up the scoring load for CSP. Kopetzki has scored 13+ points in 10 of his last 11 games including a career-high 24 points against Minot State this past weekend. The freshman shoots 44% from the field and 38% from beyond the arc while averaging 2.5 assists and 2.4 rebounds.
Sophomore Sean Mathieu has also stepped up in the absence of Horn, Skeete, and Kimmons. He comes into this game with an average of 8.1 points per game but has scored 10+ points in four of his past five games including a season-high 18 points against UMary. Mathieu also averages 3.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists on 45% from the field and 34% from three-point range.
Against SCSU earlier in the year, Kopetzki scored 7 points while playing 16 minutes off the bench. Mathieu played 25 minutes in a starting role, but only scored two points on 1-of-6 shooting.
Matt Fletcher is in his fourth season with Concordia-St. Paul as the head coach. CSP has struggled in Fletchers tenure with the program as they hold a 21-76 record, but every year they have shown growth and improvement while increasing their win total year in and year out. The Golden Bears have had an injury riddled season where Horn has only played 10 games and Kimmons eight. Before becoming the head coach of the Golden Bears, Fletcher was the head coach of Bethany Lutheran where he posted a record of 56-33 in his four years with the program.
Concordia-St. Paul Team Stats (NSIC Rank)
- 78.6 points per game (5th) | 83.4 points per game allowed (15th) | -4.8 scoring margin (13th)
- 44.1 field goal percentage (10th) | 34.9 three-point percentage (8th) | 73.8 free throw percentage (9th)
- 47 opponent field goal percentage (13th) | 34.9 opponent three-point percentage (11th)
- 35.4 rebounds per game (9th) | 7.7 offensive rebounds per game (15th)
- 39.1 opponent rebounds per game (15th) | -3.8 rebounding margin (15th)
- 11.3 turnovers per game (5th) | -2.04 turnover margin (14th)
- 1.96 blocks per game (13th)
- 4.33 steals per game (14th)
- 13.52 assists per game (6th)
St. Cloud State senior Matt Willert (Buffalo, Minn.) became the 46th member of the St. Cloud State Men's Basketball 1,000-point club in the 68-61 win at UMary on December 12. Willert scored a game-high 16 points, including six points after he reached 1,000. He ended the night with 1,006 career points, moving him up to No. 45 on the all-time scoring list.
Willert current sits at No. 31 with 1,181 points. He passed Dean Kesler (1990-92 – 1,149 points) and Brindley Theisen (2015-19 – 1158 points) last week. He has played in 101 games (2,657 minutes) over the past four seasons for the Huskies. He averages 11.7 points per game for his career on 391-of-936 (41.2%) shooting from the field, 195-569 (34.3%) from three and 204-237 (86.1%) from the free throw line.
WILLERT WATCH
In addition to working his way up the all-time scoring list, senior Matt Willert is third on the career free throw percentage list (86.1%), 9th on the career three-point makes list (195) passing Nate Miller (2001-05 – 188) and Taylor Witt (2007-11 – 189) and 19th on the career blocks list (52). He made eight three pointers at Minnesota Crookston earlier this season, missing out on the single game record by one.
SHINING STAR
St. Cloud State freshman Lucas Morgan (Sydney, Australia) was named to the NSIC Men's Basketball Shining 5 by the league office on Nov. 11 for his efforts in his first two collegiate games. He averaged 17.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in just 24.5 minutes per game during the 2-0 weekend for the Huskies in Kansas City. He shot 68.4% (13-of-19) from the field and 57.1% (4-of-7) from behind the three-point line over the weekend. In his collegiate debut on Friday, he erupted for 25 points and grabbed six rebounds in an 80-73 win over Pittsburg State. In just his second collegiate game ever, he recorded his first career double-double (10 points and 11 rebounds) in a 74-64 win over Henderson State.
For all the latest on St. Cloud State Men's Basketball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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