Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball
NSIC Tournament Semifinals: SCSU 91, WSU 77
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Huskies Best #25 Warriors for Third Time, Advance to Championship
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The third Husky men's basktball team beat second seeded Winona State 91-77 to advance to the Championship game if the NSIC/Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament. |
Winona, Minn. – The third time was not the charm for 25th ranked Winona State today (Mar. 7) as the St. Cloud State men’s basketball team posted a 91-77 win to top WSU for the third time this season, and earn a spot in the NSIC/Sanford Health Men’s Basketball Championship game.
By beating the second seeded Warriors the third seeded Huskies will play at 4:00 pm tomorrow for the tourney title and will face the winner of the other semifinal between fourth seed Minnesota State and eighth seed Northern State. Their game is scheduled for 7:00 pm this evening.
St. Cloud State held a 16-point lead coming out of the halftime break, but had to withstand a 21-5 Winona State run to open the second half. The Warriors got the Husky advantage to 10 with 10:53 left to play.
Two free throws by Matt Schneck (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) pushed the Husky lead back to 12 just a minute-and-a-half later, and Winona would not get to within single figures until there was only 1:21 left to play and the game all but in hand.
Schneck was starting for the first time since Feb. 13, and turned in one of his best performances of the season. He finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds for his second straight double-double and sixth of the season.
However, the highlight of the night was Taylor Witt (Morris, Minn.) who scored 19 first half points and finished just one shy of a career high with 29 on the night.
In the first half the Warriors Travis Whipple tied the game at 15-15 with a three from the corner, but Witt did him one better with an NBA range three just second later to put the Huskies back ahead. On the next trip down the floor Witt swooshed another jumper to put the Huskies up five and score his 10th point before six minutes had ticked off the clock.
The Huskies would not trail for the rest of the game and the five points ignited a 26-7 Husky run that ended with a lay-in under the basket by Josh Ortmann (Buffalo, Minn.) to put the Huskies up 39-22 with 5:54 left to play in the first half. During the last half of the run, the Huskies began a stretch of over four minutes where they held the Warriors off the scoreboard all together.
A lay-up by David Johnson at the 8:33 mark was the last points scored for Winona State until Jon Walburg hit a three at the 4:15 mark. After Walburg’s three however, the Huskies strung together another stretch where they doubled up the Warriors 8-4 going into the half.
SCSU was the beneficiary of sub-par shooting half by Winona State that saw the hosts hit just 36% of their shots from the floor. The Huskies took full advantage of the Warrior’s miscues in the half, shooting better than 56% from the floor and over 44% from long range.
The Warriors were able to step it up some in the second half and get their shooting percentage to over 48% in the period, but were still second to the Huskies who shot 50% in the half. SCSU finished with a 53.3%-to-41.4% shooting advantage over WSU.
In the second half with Craig Coenen (Kaukauna, Wis.) battling a slew of Warriors under the basket, his shot attempt bounced off the back of the rim, but Schneck was there for the put-back to give SCSU a 14-point lead 72-58 with 4:42 to play.
WSU’s David Johnson did his best to give his squad the momentum back with a three on the next trip down the floor, but Brett Carmichael (Elk River, Minn.) matched him with a three of his own just four seconds later, forcing Winona State to use a timeout, trailing 75-61 with 4:02 to play.
Coming out of the timeout, and down the stretch, every big play by the Warriors was matched by the Huskies. When WSU finally did get to within 10 – off a Whipple three to make it 82-73 with 1:27 to go –Witt hit two free throws just after to put SCSU back up 11.
Forced the foul, the Warriors sent the Huskies to the charity stripe 10 times in the final 1:21, but the Huskies went 9-of-10 to erase any chance of a comeback and seal the win.
Along with Witt and Schneck, Coenen and Andrew Bernstetter (St. Joseph, Minn.) finished in double figures with 12 and 14 points respectively.
In the game, the Huskies tied a season high with 46 total rebounds, holding a 46-to-32 advantage on the boards.
The win is the fifth straight for the Huskies and sends them to their first conference championship game since the 2005-06 season. Along with the tournament title, the Huskies may also be playing for a chance to host NCAA Central Region Tournament which starts Mar. 14.
Number two in the last regional rankings, the Huskies have now beaten ninth ranked Augustana and fourth ranked Winona State. Minnesota State is #5 in the region and Northern State is #10. The final regional selection is announced Sunday Mar. 8th at 8:00 pm.
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