Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball
NSIC Men's Basketball Championship: SCSU 91, MSU 89
MEN'S BASKETBALL: NSIC Champions!!!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Husky mens basketball wins the NSIC Tournament Championship. |
Winona, Minn. – Cool as ice senior Craig Coenen (Kaukauna, Wis.) nailed three free throws in the final eight seconds to seal a conference championship. The St. Cloud State men’s basketball team fought down to the wire with rival Minnesota State today (Mar. 8) and made the plays down the stretch to earn a 91-89 victory and the title of champions at the 2009 NSIC/Sanford Health Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Taylor Witt (Morris, Minn.) tied a career high with 30 points, and along with a 29 point performance in the semifinals was named tournament MVP. Matt Schenck (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) recorded his third double-double of the three-game tournament and joined Witt on the All-Tournament Team.
The win is the sixth straight for St. Cloud State (22-8), but did not come easy. A three-point play by Witt pushed the Huskies lead to its largest of the game at 12 at 80-68 with just under five minutes to go, but by the 1:01 mark of the second half, a Minnesota State (25-8) three courtesy of Jadee Jones brought MSU to within one at 84-83.
Down the stretch in the final minute, the Huskies hit 9-of-11 free throw attempts, and needed every one of them as the Mavericks hit their shots to stay within three. Holding a three-point lead as the clock ticked below the 10 second mark, the Mavericks Marcus Hill brought the ball up court. Hill had already nailed both of his three-point attempts in the game, and the Huskies did not want him to get to 3-for-3. Josh Ortmann (Buffalo, Minn.) fouled Hill, sending him to the line where he made both free throws, but SCSU still got the ball with a one-point lead.
After taking the inbounds pass, Coenen was fouled and made both free throws to regain a three-point lead, and the Huskies led 90-87 with seven seconds to go. On the next possession, the Maverick’s Jadee Jones missed both of his free throws with Coenen grabbing the rebound off the second. After a foul he went to the line where he made 1-of-2 to stretch the lead to four at 91-87, and seal the win with only three seconds to go.
MSU made one final jumper at the buzzer for the final 91-89 margin. The Huskies entered the tournament as the third seed with the Mavericks as the fourth seed after each team tied for third place in the final NSIC regular season standings.
Of Witt’s 30 points, 18 came in the second half as he hit big shot after big shot to propel his team to victory. On the boards, Schneck pulled down a career high 17, including seven on the offensive end. The Huskies held a 40-35 advantage on the boards, and it seemed that every time the Huskies needed a big rebound, Schneck was there to pull it down.
Schneck added 16 points to his effort on the boards and Ortmann finished as the final Husky in double figures with 14 points. Ortmann went 7-of-9 from the free throw line including some big shots from the stripe down the stretch.
In a rise to the occasion type game, the Huskies did just that, hitting 18-of-21 free throws in the pivotal second half and limiting their turnovers to just 10 for the entire game.
The win makes the Huskies the first SCSU men’s team to win a NSIC tournament championship, and makes St. Cloud State University just the second institution in the 10-year history of the NSIC basketball tournament to hold both men’s and women’s titles in the same season. The SCSU women began the season sweep when they beat Concordia in their title game earlier in the day. In 2002-03, the University of Minnesota Duluth was the first.
The Huskies win their third conference tournament title, but their first since the 2002-03 season. In the 2005-06 season, SCSU last appeared in a conference tournament championship, losing to none-other than Minnesota State. Current Huskies, Coenen and Spencer Bartz (Hinckley, Minn.) were freshmen on that team.
Now it’s on to the NCAA tournament and regional play for SCSU as they earned an automatic bid with the championship. This will be the third appearance in the NCAA tournament for the Huskies in the last four seasons.
The Central Regional begins on March 14th in Marshall, Minn. with number one seed Southwest Minnesota as the host. The Huskies are the #2 seed and will face familiar friend Augustana in the first round. Game times are yet to be determined.
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