Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball vs. Winona State: SCSU 100, WSU 81
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Huskies Beat #20 Warriors 100-81, Lock Up Third Seed
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Spencer Bartz had scored in double-figures in each of the Huskies last four wins, including a career high 23 against Winona State. |
St. Cloud, Minn. – The St. Cloud State men’s basketball team won for the third straight time, and in the process swept the season series with Winona State, earning a convincing 100-81 victory over the 20th ranked Warriors this evening (Feb. 28) in front of a season high crowd of 4,620 in Halenbeck Hall.
Winona State (22-7, 15-5) had already secured the second seed in the upcoming NSIC/Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament, and entered the game with an outside change at a co-conference title with a win and some help. St. Cloud State (19-8, 14-6) put a nix on that idea and locked up the third seed in the tournament with win.
Each team will open up the tourney at home on Mar. 4, with the Huskies hosting Augustana in Halenbeck Hall at 7:00 pm. SCSU will open up conference tournament play at home for the first time since the opening round of the 2006-07 NCC Tournament.
The win came on the strength of one of the Huskies best shooting nights of the year, connecting for a 50% clip from behind the arc, on their way to a 56% tally from the field. The Warriors entered the game as one of the best three-point shooting teams in division II, but Huskies matched them shot-for-shot in the first half with each team making five.
The first half difference maker was the 54.2% mark from the field for SCSU, compared to the 36.0% mark put up by WSU.
Winona State led for the first three minutes of the half, and St. Cloud State did not take their first lead until Andrew Bernstetter (St. Joseph, Minn.) hit a tie-breaking three to put SCSU up 10-7 at the 16:12 mark. The Huskies would hold the lead for over 10 minutes, going up by as much as five during the span when Spencer Bartz (Hinckley, Minn.) sank the first three of his career high 23 points to make it 17-12 SCSU at the 13:59 mark.
A three-pointer by WSU’s David Johnson’s – the NSIC leader in three-pointers made – gave the visitors back the lead at 29-27 with 5:39 left to play in the half.
Two Brett Putz (Forest City, Iowa) free throws and a Brett Carmichael (Elk River, Minn.) lay-in, and the Huskies had the lead back for good at 31-29 with 3:29 to go in the half. In the final three plus minutes before heading into the locker rooms, SCSU pushed their lead to nine twice, with the last coming off a Matt Schneck (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) put-back just before the buzzer. At halftime, the Huskies led 42-33.
Winona State scored the first five points of the second half to get within four at 38-42, forcing St. Cloud State into an early timeout. After settling down, the Huskies assembled a 17-5 run capped by two Bartz free throws after the first of two technical fouls on the Warrior bench. With 14:48 left to play, SCSU led 59-43.
The Huskies were now in a groove and lead by as much as 13 the rest of the way, including by more than 20 for nearly the entire final 11 minutes. The final exclamation point on the win was a no-look pass from Taylor Witt (Morris, Minn.) to Craig Coenen (Kaukauna, Wis.) for the wide-open slam to give the Huskies 100 points.
The win is the second this season over a ranked opponent, and is the first regular season ending win since SCSU beat North Dakota State 79-77 to close the 2002-03 regular season. The last time they won the conference tournament.
Bartz finished as the game’s leading scorer, while Witt was not far behind with 22. 16 of Witt’s points came from a 16-for-18 performance at the free throw line as he surpassed the 500 career point mark, and now has 510 in his two seasons. Putz tied a career high with 19 points on the night.
The loss for Winona State was their second straight in Halenbeck Hall, as they fell 80-79 in their last trip to St. Cloud during the 2005-06 season.
Southwest Minnesota beat Northern State, 66-51, this evening to win the regular season title outright, and will host #8 seed Northern State again, in the first round of the tournament on Wednesday, Mar. 4. Winona State finished alone in second place and will host #7 seed Concordia in the first round, and #4 seed Minnesota State will host #5 Minnesota Duluth. Augustana lost to UMD this afternoon to fall to the #6 seed, and will travel to St. Cloud to take on #3 seed SCSU at 7:00 pm on Mar. 4.
After the first round of games are played, the four remaining seeds will play the semi-finals and finals at the site of the highest remaining seed. SCSU is a combined 7-5 against the other seven teams in the tournament, including a 96-90 win on the road over Augustana on Jan. 31.
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