St. Cloud State Men’s Basketball Readies for Away and Home Games

St. Cloud, Minn.- St. Cloud State Men's Basketball (14-10, 10-6 NSIC) readies for an away and home game this week as they travel to UMary on Wednesday, February 5 and then host No. 20 Minot State on Saturday, February 8. Wednesday's game will be played at 5:30 p.m. while Saturday's game is set for 1:00 p.m.

Follow the Huskies
Both games will be streamed live for free on the NSIC Network. Live Stats will be provided by UMary on Wednesday and then by St. Cloud State on Saturday. Saturday's game will also be broadcasted on the Varsity Network. Steve Linzmeier, the Voice of St. Cloud State Basketball, can be heard on the audio broadcast for Saturday's game. Tickets to Saturday's game are available at scsutickets.com.

Last Time Out
St. Cloud State had a home and away game this past week as they hosted to Bemidji State on Tuesday and then traveled to MSU Moorhead on Saturday.

Through the first seven minutes of the game against Bemidji State, neither team was able to take control of the game as the teams traded leads. A three by Luke Winkel gave St. Cloud State a little breathing room as they led 21-17 at the 12:18 mark of the first half. Two buckets by John Sutherland tied the game at 21, but SCSU started to take command as Izaac Neal gave the Huskies valuable minutes off the bench. Neal threw down a dunk to give the Huskies the lead at 23-21. Following back-to-back stops, Nate Dahl drove in the lane and finished inside as Bemidji State called a timeout. Out of the break, Neal showed off his vertical with a block on Sutherland and then a few possessions later made a hook shot to push the lead up to six points. The Huskies defense held the Beavers scoreless for nearly four minutes, but they ended the half on a hot streak as they knocked in five of their next six threes to lead 38-37 going into halftime. The second half saw the Huskies come out with a sense of urgency as a three-pointer by Anish Ramlall capped off a 12-4 run as St. Cloud State now led 49-42. The Huskies had an answer for every run by the Beavers in the second half, but BSU did not go away quietly. With 3:26 left in the game, the Huskies lead would be cut down to only two points. Lucas Morgan came up big for the Huskies as he finished a layup to get the lead back up to four points. SCSU forced a miss on the ensuing Beaver possession which ultimately to Wyatt Hawks getting fouled on a layup where he made both free throws. Now leading 65-59 with 2:06 left in the game, St. Cloud State kept the Beavers at bay as they made 11 of their final 12 free throw attempts. The Huskies would go on to win 78-71 for their 14th win of the season. Luke Winkel was the game's leading scorer with 19 points on an efficient 6/11 shooting. Winkel went 5/5 from the free throw line while dishing out four assists and nabbing a steal. This was the fourth game where Winkel has scored 19+ points and 12th game with 4+ assists, including the past five games. Lucas Morgan stuffed the stat sheet as he totaled 12 points and six rebounds and assists. Morgan also made all six of his free throw attempts. Morgan has scored 12+ points in six of his past seven games. The six assists were a season-high.

In what was a back-and-forth fast paced start to the game, St. Cloud State held a 22-21 lead at the 11:30 mark of the first half against MSU Moorhead. With five straight points from Kynan Philippe, the Huskies looked to be taking control of the game with a six-point lead. The teams continued to trade buckets late in the first half, but the Huskies flirted with a double-digit lead multiple times. A three-pointer by Luke Winkel put SCSU up 10 points with 1:37 left in the half. The Dragons would have a strong finish to the half as they knocked down two three-pointers with Will Kinsey hitting a buzzer beater corner three. The Huskies would hold a 48-44 lead going into the break. St. Cloud State brushed off the late momentum by the Dragons as another three by Winkel pushed the lead back up to 10 at the 15:33 mark of the second half. MSUM continued to fight and cut into the Huskies lead multiple times throughout the second half, but SCSU would have a counter run in store. After the Dragons cut the lead down to three points with 4:27 left in the game, the teams traded defensive stops before Wyatt Hawks flushed a dunk on a secondary break opportunity off a feed from Lee Marks III to set the score at 79-74. The dunk by Hawks momentarily halted the momentum for the Dragons, but a 5-0 by Moorhead would result in the game being tied with 1:49 left in the game. The defense ramped up for both teams as neither team could find the bottom of the net in the final 109 seconds. After a defensive stop and a timeout, the Huskies held possession with three seconds left but needed to go the full length of the court. Winkel took a few dribbles to get inside halfcourt and fired a deep three that missed as the game would head into overtime. Th start of overtime saw the teams battle back and forth, but a slot three pointer by Lucas Morgan capped off a 6-2 run where St. Cloud State now led 88-84 with 1:43 remaining. With 26 seconds left in the overtime, Logan Kinsey tied the game with a layup as the Dragons responded with a 4-0 run. SCSU again had a chance to win the game at the buzzer. Winkel would head to work in the post where he missed a turnaround floater, grabbed his own rebound, and then missed a layup at the buzzer as the game headed to double overtime. Both shot attempts were well defended by the Dragons. The second overtime saw MSUM build a four-point lead after back-to-back threes by Carson Johnson. Winkel would make a free throw after drawing a foul to cut the deficit to three, but the Dragons extended the lead to five after a layup by Shaun Wysocki with 1:01 remaining in the game. The Huskies quickly worked a pick and roll between Morgan and Hawks as Hawks finished inside to bring the deficit back to three with 46 seconds left. The Dragons would ultimately close the game out at the free throw line as they made six of their final 10 attempts in the last 46 seconds as they went on to win 104-98 in double overtime. Free throws would be a deciding factor as the Huskies shot 17/29 from the line. Carson Johnson of MSUM also went for 42 points on 14/26 shooting and made eight of his 14 three-point attempts. Luke Winkel led the Huskies in scoring with a career-high 28 points on an efficient 10/20 shooting while going 3/7 from three. Winkel also tied his career-high with eight assists and grabbed five rebounds. This was his third game scoring 20+ points this season. Lucas Morgan tallied 16 points, five rebounds, three assists, and a steal and block. He shot 50% from the field and made two of his three three-point attempts. Morgan also went 4/5 from the free throw line and with his lone miss snapped his steak of 34 consecutive free throw makes. This was his fifth game scoring 16+ points this season.

St. Cloud State Statistical Leaders (total-average)

Points- Luke Winkel (306-13.3)
Rebounds- Wyatt Hawks (191-8.0)
Offensive rebounds- Wyatt Hawks (59-2.5)
Assists- Luke Winkel (84-3.7)
Steals- Nate Dahl (33-1.4)
Blocks- Wyatt Hawks (26-1.1)
Stocks- Wyatt Hawks (47-2.0)
Field goals made- Wyatt Hawks (108-4.5)
Three-point field goals made- Kynan Philippe (40-1.7)
Free throw makes- Nate Dahl (102-4.3)
Minutes- Wyatt Hawks (698-29.1)

St. Cloud State Team Stats (NSIC Ranking)

76.8 points per game (6^th) | 74.4 points per game allowed (10^th) | 2.4 scoring margin (9^th)
45.5 field goal percentage (8^th) | 34.9 three-point percentage (8^th) | 72.3 free throw percentage (5^th)
46.4 opponent field goal percentage (13^th) | 35.1 opponent three-point percentage (10^th)
34.8 rebounds per game (9^th) | 9.9 offensive rebounds per game (5^th)
33.1 opponent rebounds per game (7^th) | 1.7 rebounding margin (8^th)
12.1 turnovers per game (11^th) | 13.0 turnovers forced per game (2^nd) | 0.88 turnover margin (6^th)
2.63 blocks per game (12^th)
7.96 steals per game (2^nd)
11.54 assists per game (14^th)
7.3 three-point field goals made per game (10^th)

Playoff Push
With three weeks left in the regular season, the Huskies will be looking to make a playoff push to solidify their place in the standings. The top four seeds in the standings receive a bye to the Stanford Pentagon, teams seeded 5-8 will host a first round playoff game, and teams seed 9-12 will travel to the corresponding host. St. Cloud State is currently sixth in the NSIC Standings.

The full NSIC Standings are as follows:

Southwest Minnesota State: 18-4, 13-3 NSIC
Minot State: 21-4, 12-4
Concordia-St. Paul: 16-6, 11-5
Minnesota State: 14-9, 10-5
Winona State: 15-7, 10-6
St. Cloud State: 14-10, 10-6
Minnesota Duluth: 14-7, 9-6
MSU Moorhead: 14-8, 9-7
Wayne State: 14-8, 8-8
Sioux Falls: 12-10, 8-8
Augustana: 10-12, 7-9
Bemidji State: 8-14, 5-11
Minnesota Crookston: 5-17, 4-12
UMary: 5-20, 3-13
Northern State: 1-21, 0-16

All stats and standings accumulated February 3

Series History
Saturday's game against UMary will be the 36th all-time meeting between the teams with SCSU holding a 21-14 record. The Huskies have won four consecutive games against the Marauders including their matchup at Halenbeck Hall earlier in the year.

The Huskies got off to a hot start as they cashed four three-pointers in first four minutes of the game. Lucas Morgan knocked in three of those makes for a quick nine points while helping the Huskies lead 13-5. St. Cloud State held a 7+ point lead for the majority of the half as they led 31-23 with 4:09 left in the half after a jumper by Nate Dahl. From that point, the Marauders started to claw back as they closed the half on a 7-3 run and made a buzzer beating three to end the half. St. Cloud State would hold a 34-30 lead going into the break. Like the first half, SCSU had a blazing start to the second half as they opened the half on a 14-2 run. St. Cloud State led 48-32 after Lucas Morgan and Anish Ramlall knocked down consecutive three-pointers to push the lead to 16. The Marauders called a timeout to halt the momentum, but Luke Winkel immediately drained a three-pointer following a defensive stop by the Huskies. St. Cloud State would comfortably lead by 13+ points the rest of the way as they stepped up defensively in the second half. UMary scored 20 points on 7/27 shooting in the second half as SCSU picked up their second straight win with a 66-50 victory over the Marauders. Lucas Morgan got it done on both ends as he scored a game-high 17 points on 6/9 shooting from the field and a perfect 5/5 from three. Morgan also grabbed five rebounds and tallied three stocks. He set a career-high with his five three-point makes. Luke Winkel scored 15 points on 5/9 shooting while tying his career-high in three-point makes by going 3/4 from downtown. He also dished out four assists. Winkel has scored 15+ points in three of his past four games and tallied 4+ assists in five games this season.

Saturday's game against Minot State will be the 26^th matchup between the teams with the Huskies holding an 18-7 advantage in the series. The teams faced off earlier in the season in Minot where the Beavers would come away with the win.

Through the first eight minutes of play, both teams struggled offensively as Minot State would lead 15-12 after Kynan Philippe drilled a three-pointer on a fastbreak at the 11:20 mark of the first half. The Beavers started to quickly take control as they used a 20-6 run over the next seven minutes to lead 35-18 with 4:23 left in the half. Minot State kept their distance to close out the half as they would lead 45-25 at the break. Offense in the first half was a struggle for St. Cloud State as they shot 31% from the field and a lowly 10% from beyond the arc on 20 attempts. The second half was very reminiscent of the first half as the Huskies were unable to get within 20 points and trailed by as many as 34 points in the second half. The offense picked up for SCSU in the second half as they shot 52% from the field, but allowed the Beavers to shoot 63% from the field. St. Cloud State would go on to lose 58-91 in their conference opener to Minot State.

Scouting UMary
The University of Mary Marauders enter this matchup holding a 5-20 record with a 3-13 mark in conference play. The three conference wins for UMary have come against Minnesota Crookston (x2) and Northern Staten. The Marauders entered this season projected to finish 15th in the conference after going 7-21 with a 2-20 record in conference play last season. In the offseason, the Marauders lost their two top scorers in Gerald Gittens and Brock Heffner who averaged 13.8 and 13.4 points per game respectively.

Through 13 games, the Marauders hold three players in double-digit scoring with Jeremiah Jones, Kevin McGaskey, and Ty Rogers all above the 10-point threshold. Jones leads the trio with 12.0 points while shooting 42.1% from the field and 31.8% from beyond the arc. He leads the team in rebounding with 6.0 per game while also averaging 2.8 steals and 2.4 assists. McGaskey is scoring 11.2 points per game on shooting splits of 35.9% from the field and 34.8% from three.He is the team leader in assists per game with 3.1 per game. Rogers is the final Marauder in double-figure scoring with 11.0 points per game. Rogers is shooting 45.8% from the field and 40.0% from three while grabbing 3.7 boards per game.

Head Coach Jack Nelson enters his fourth season with UMary in the 2024-25 campaign. Through three seasons, Nelson has accumulated a 34-73 record.

UMary Statistical Leaders (total-average)

Points- Jeremiah Jones (300-12.0)
Rebounds- Jeremiah Jones (150-6.0)
Offensive rebounds- Jeremiah Jones (48-1.9)
Assists- Kevin McGaskey (72-3.1)
Steals- Jeremiah Jones (71-2.8)
Blocks- Rich Ashu (17-0.7)
Stocks- Jeremiah Jones (85-3.4)
Field goals made- Jeremiah Jones (123-4.9)
Three-point field goals made- Jeremiah Jones (35-1.4)
Free throw makes- Kevin McGaskey (58-2.5)
Minutes- Jeremiah Jones (772-30.9)

UMary Team Stats (NSIC Ranking)

65.4 points per game (15^th) | 77.5 points per game allowed (12^th) | -12.1 scoring margin (15^th)
40.6 field goal percentage (15^th) | 31.7 three-point percentage (15^th) | 63.6 free throw percentage (15^th)
49.3 opponent field goal percentage (15^th) | 38.7 opponent three-point percentage (14^th)
31.6 rebounds per game (14^th) | 10.4 offensive rebounds per game (4^th)
37.0 opponent rebounds per game (14^th) | -5.4 rebounding margin (14^th)
12.7 turnovers per game (14^th) | 12.9 turnovers forced per game (3^rd) | 0.20 turnover margin (8^th)
2.63 blocks per game (13^th)
7.32 steals per game (4^th)
11.88 assists per game (13^th)
6.6 three-point field goals made per game (15^th)

Scouting Minot State
The Minot State Beavers come into this matchup with the Huskies ranked No. 20 in the nation while holding a 21-4 record and a 12-4 mark in conference play. Minot State has won four of their past five games with wins coming against Augustana, Concordia-St. Paul, Minnesota Duluth, and Northern State. The Beavers entered this season coming off a strong 2023-24 season where they finished fourth in the conference with a 20-9 record overall and a 15-7 mark in conference play. Minot received a bye in part to their fourth-place finish but were defeated 68-85 against Southwest Minnesota State in the NSIC Quarterfinals. This season, the Beavers were picked to finish 10th in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

The Beavers currently hold four players that score in double-digits as they are led by Caleb Van De Griend. Van De Griend is second in the NSIC in scoring with 19.8 points per game while leading the conference in rebounds with 13.3. He is also shooting 70.5% from the field while leading the nation in double-doubles and rebounds. Jalen Cook, Ayouba Berthe, and Jaxson Gunville are the other three Beavers that score in double-digits. Cook is scoring 14.7 points per game while shooting 35.3% from three. Berthe is averaging 13.0 points on shooting splits of 45.1% from the field and 41.7% from three. Gunville is scoring 11.9 points while making 3.3 threes per game on 39% shooting.

Head Coach Matt Murken enters his 13th season with the Beavers in 2024-25 and is currently the 4th all-time winningest coach in program history. Murken has totaled 172-174 in his tenure at Minot State.

Minot State Statistical Leaders (total-average)

Points- Caleb Van De Griend (495-19.8)
Rebounds- Caleb Van De Griend (332-13.3)
Offensive rebounds- Caleb Van De Griend (121-4.8)
Assists- Sam West (110-4.4)
Steals- Sam West (36-1.4)
Blocks- Caleb Van De Griend (22-0.9)
Stocks- Sam West (40-1.6)
Field goals made- Caleb Van De Griend (194-7.8)
Three-point field goals made- Jaxson Gunville (82-3.3)
Free throw makes- Caleb Van De Griend (98-119)
Minutes- Jalen Cook (810-32.4)

Minot State Team Stats (NSIC Ranking)

81.7 points per game (2^nd) | 69.6 points per game allowed (4^th) | 12.0 scoring margin (1^st)
48.8 field goal percentage (3^rd) | 37.8 three-point percentage (3^rd) | 75.0 free throw percentage (3^rd)
42.7 opponent field goal percentage (4^th) | 34.3 opponent three-point percentage (7^th)
37.8 rebounds per game (3^rd) | 10.6 offensive rebounds per game (3^rd)
29.7 opponent rebounds per game (1^st) | 8.2 rebounding margin (1^st)
11.1 turnovers per game (8^th) | 10.4 turnovers forced per game (10^th) | -0.64 turnover margin (9^th)
3.36 blocks per game (4^th)
5.84 steals per game (10^th)
14.28 assists per game (5^th)
9.3 three-point field goals made per game (2^nd)

Minot State will play MSU Moorhead on February 5 before playing the Huskies on Saturday.

For all the latest on St. Cloud State Men's Basketball, stay tuned to scsuhuskies.com and follow the Huskies on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.