Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball at Minnesota, Crookston: SCSU 84, UMC 70
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Schlagel Sets Wins Record as SCSU tops UMC 84-70
Saturday, February 21, 2009
St. Cloud State head coach Kevin Schlagel yells out orders as his team battles Minnesota, Crookston today. After withstanding a UMC rally, Schlagel led SCSU to a 84-70 win, the 232nd of his career making him the winningest head coach in program history. |
Crookston, Minn. – Kevin Schlagel earned his 232nd career win today (Feb. 21) as he led his St. Cloud State men’s basketball team to an 84-70 victory over a resilient Minnesota, Crookston. The win improves Schlagel's career record to 232-111, and moves him ahead of his predecessor Butch Raymond (1984-97) as the winningest head coach in SCSU men’s basketball history.
Raymond went 231-142 in 13 seasons at SCSU, while Schlagel (1997-present) has established his mark in his 12th season at the helm of the Husky program. With a 17-8 overall record in 2008-09, he has now led the Huskies to at least 17 wins in 11 of 12 seasons in charge, and has never posted a losing record.
In the winter of 1997, the rookie head coach earned his first career win with a 106-53 victory over the University of Minnesota, Crookston. He has since went on to post a 14-0 record against the Golden Eagles, but none bigger, and arguably none tougher, than his record setting win today.
The Huskies (17-8, 12-6) shot better than 50% from the field in the first half, and needed every bit of it to hold off a Golden Eagle (4-21, 2-16) team that thrived off the Huskies mistakes. SCSU turned the ball over nine times in the first half, which led to a 9-0 UMC advantage in points off turnovers after the first 20 minutes.
The Huskies went up 10-2 four minutes into the game after an Andrew Bernstetter (St. Joseph, Minn.) three-pointer capped an 8-0 run. The Golden Eagles called a timeout to calm down, and then proceeded to score the next six points, and 13 of the next 16, to take their first lead at 15-13 at the 9:55 mark of the opening half.
The lead would go on to change hands four times in the first half, with the last coming with 1:01 to play. After UMC hit a momentum stealing three to tie the game at 28-28, SCSU closed the half on a 5-0 run to take a 33-28 lead into the locker room.
Coming out of the break the Huskies scored eight straight points, capped by a Taylor Witt (Morris, Minn.) lay-up, to go up by double digits and take a 41-28 lead with 17:17 still left to play. UMC got back within 10 at 35-43 at the 15:30 mark, but SCSU responded with an 18-2 run that ran nearly five minutes of the clock and gave them a 25-point lead at 62-37.
The closest the game got from there on out was the final 14- point margin. Witt led the way with 24 points, and tied a career high with nine assists. Spencer Bartz (Hinckley, Minn.) hit 8-of-11 shots, including 4-of-7 threes, on his way to a career high 21 points, while playing a season high 25 minutes.
Craig Coenen (Kaukauna, Wis.) was the final Husky in double figures with 10 points, to go along with seven rebounds. Bernstetter pulled down a game high nine rebounds, all on the defensive end.
The Huskies shot better than 60% from the field in the second half, scoring 51 points in the period, on their way to a season high 56.9% single game shooting mark, and their highest point total since their last road win on Jan. 31.
Another season high for the Huskies came at the free throw line where they hit all seven attempts in the second half, and were 10-11 for the game, a 90.9% tally.
It is wait and see for the Huskies now as the rest of the NSIC plays at 8:00 pm tonight. SCSU entered the day as part of a four-way tie in fourth place, along with Augustana, Minnesota Duluth and Northern State. Augie and NSU play this evening.
Schlagel will look for number 233 on Wednesday, Feb. 25 when he and the Huskies travel to Concordia for an 8:00 pm tilt. The Golden Bears are currently 9-8 in the NSIC and 11-13 overall.
The Huskies then get to close the regular season at home on Feb. 28 when they host Winona State in the Red Out at 8:00 pm.
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