Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball
Men's NSIC Tournament First Round: #3 SCSU 91, #6 Augie 84
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Huskies Advance to Semifinals, Beat Augustana 91-84
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
With a career high 20-points from Brett Putz, the Huskies are moving on to the semifinals of the NSIC tournament where they will meet Winona State for the third time this season. |
St. Cloud, Minn. – The St. Cloud State men’s basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the NSIC/Sanford Health Men’s Basketball Tournament with a 91-84 win over visiting Augustana this evening, Mar. 4.
St. Cloud State (20-8, 14-6) led for nearly the entire game and topped Augustana (19-9, 13-7) for the second time this season. The Huskies now advance to set up a rematch of last Saturday’s affair (Feb. 28), as they will meet Winona State in the semifinal round. WSU beat Concordia 87-79 this evening in their opening round game.
Top seed Southwest Minnesota was knocked off tonight by number eight seed Northern State, meaning the final two rounds of the tournament will shift to Winona, Minn. as the second seeded Warriors are the highest seed remaining. The final first round game saw Minnesota State put a 101-74 hurting on Minnesota Duluth, meaning the Mavericks will play the Wolves in the other semifinal.
Brett Putz (Forest City, Iowa) set the pace for the Huskies early as he had 12 first half points, coming courtesy of four shots from long range, and finished with a career high 20 points to lead all scorers. When he hit his fourth three-pointer of the first half, he stretched the Huskies’ lead to it’s largest of the half at nine points, and capped a 19-2 SCSU run that saw them turn a 3-11 deficit at the 16:34 mark, into a 22-13 lead with 9:47 left to go.
The Vikings were able to tie the game back up less than two minutes later off a Cody Schilling three-pointer, which made it 24-24 at the 8:12 mark, but after Taylor Witt (Morris, Minn.) broke the tie on the next trip down the floor, the Huskies held the lead for the rest of the game. Witt finished with 13 points.
At the half, St. Cloud State led 41-37, despite not attempting a single free throw in the period. Augustana meanwhile, went to the line 15 times, making 14 of their attempts.
A lay-in by Putz less than five minutes into the second half stretched the Husky led to double digits for the first time at 53-42, and less than three minutes later Andrew Bernstetter (St. Joseph, Minn.) gave the Huskies their biggest lead of the game at 12 points, making it 58-46 with 12:45 left to play.
SCSU would lead by at least five the rest of the way, but had to work to get it. On back-to-back possessions a David Foster three brought the Vikings to within a quintet, separated only by a Josh Ortmann (Buffalo, Minn.) three to maintain the Husky lead. Ortmann would go on to finish with 15 points.
For the game, the Vikings shot almost 50% from the field and better than 92% at the stripe compared to a 47.8% field goal mark and 82.6% free throw tally for the Huskies.
SCSU did hold a 34-to-28 advantage on the boards, and limited Augie to just eight offensive rebounds, which led to a 20-3 SCSU advantage in second chance points. The Huskies also forced the Vikings into 22 turnovers, which SCSU turned into 30 points.
Quietly having his best game since the 2009 opener was Matt Schneck (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) who tallied his career-best fifth double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Tip-off for the Huskies semifinal game with the Warriors will be determined Thursday morning, as both the Warrior men and women are now hosting the final two rounds of the NSIC/Sanford Health Basketball Tournament.
The win snapped a three-game postseason losing skid for the Huskies and gave them their first 20-win season since 2005-06. Head coach Kevin Schlagel has now led the Huskies to 20-wins in six of his 12 seasons at the helm.
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