Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball Regional : Augie 73, SCSU 72
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Huskies Fall at the Buzzer to Augustana, 73-72
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Huskies season came to an end today, in the first round of the Central Region Tournament. |
Marshall, Minn. – The St. Cloud State men’s basketball team lost a heartbreaker today (Mar. 14) as Augustana’s David Foster hit the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer for the 73-72 win to propel the Vikings to the semifinals of the NCAA Central Region Tournament, and end the Huskies’ season.
Second seeded St. Cloud State closes the 2008-09 campaign 22-9, charting the most wins since the 2002-03 season, while seventh seeded Augustana pulls the upset and gets to the 20-win mark, improving to 20-9.
Trailing by one at 71-70 with less than 10 seconds left on the clock, Augie floor leader Marques Blank raced the ball up court. As he drove to the basket he drove through Taylor Witt (Morris, Minn.) who drew the charge, turning the ball back over to the Huskies with only three seconds left in the game.
After the inbound, Witt was immediately fouled and went to the line looking to extend the Husky advantage. He made the first, but missed for the first time all game on the second, leaving the SCSU lead at 72-70, and the door open just enough for Augie.
With no time to spare, The Vikings inbounded the ball on a three-quarter-court length pass. After a catch-and-pitch, Foster got the ball out on the near-side wing and with a hand in his face, put up the Viking’s last prayer.
The horn and backboard lights went off as the ball arced towards the hoop, and with the crowd of 1,567 at the R/A Facility in Marshall, Minn. on their feet, it swooshed through the net for the game’s final play.
"It was a heck of a game, and it just didn’t go our way," said Husky head coach Kevin Schlagel after the game, "we struggled for 20 minutes, fought our way back, and in the end it was just great players making great plays"
What the ending doesn’t show however is the valiant effort put up by St. Cloud State as they fought all the way back from a 15-point second half deficit to set up the tense final moments. The Huskies went down 57-42 after the Viking’s Derrick De Zeeuw hit his only field goal of the game with 11:03 left to go in the second half.
Over the next 37 seconds the Huskies got five straight points from Jesse Fisher (Pequot Lakes, Minn.), and by the 10:00 minute mark were within eight after Matt Schneck (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) pushed the SCSU run to 7-0.
The Huskies had the 15-point lead erased and the game tied by the 4:07 mark of the second half, after a free throw by Fisher tied the game at 61-61. Augie would quickly regain the lead after Blank hit two free throws of his own to put his team back up 63-61 at the 3:54 mark.
Down three at 65-68, Witt scored four straight points to give his team their first led since Schneck opened the game’s scoring with two free throws 12 seconds into the first half. With just 49 seconds left to play, the Huskies were finally on top at 69-68.
The next trip down the floor saw Augustana miss two shots under the basket, with Schneck coming up with what looked like a game saving block on the second. After the Schneck swat, Brett Putz (Forest City, Iowa) came away with the loose ball and was fouled to send him to the line.
Putz nailed both of his free throws to put the Huskies up 71-68 with 14 seconds on the clock. On the Vikings next possession, Jordan Dalton was fouled and went to the line where he made both to bring them back within one at 71-70 with just 10 ticks to go.
Forced to foul, the Vikings sent Putz back to the line after the Husky inbound. Uncharacteristically, Putz missed both, setting up the final seconds.
The Huskies were forced to play catch-up in the second half after choosing a poor time to have one of their worst shooting halves of the season. SCSU went 10-of-37 from the floor in the first half for a field goal percentage of 27%. In the second half, as they made their run, the Huskies went 13-of-25, for a 52% clip.
St. Cloud State was able to out-rebound Augustana by a 40-35 margin, bettering their opponent on the boards for the sixth straight game. The Huskies also struggled from behind the arc in the game, shooting 25% for the night which included a 0-for-3 mark in the second half.
The loss is the first to Augustana all season for St. Cloud State, having won the two previous meetings, including just 10 days ago on Mar. 4 when SCSU bounced Augie from the NSIC Tournament in the first round in Halenbeck Hall.
Six years to the day since their last NCAA Tournament win, the Huskies were three seconds away from breaking a three-game losing streak in the regional, but now the streak hits four as they fall to 0-3 in their last three tournament appearances.
Witt led all scorers with 21 points on the night and played a game high 36 minutes to get it. For the fourth straight game, Schneck tabbed a double-double, this time with 17 points and 11 rebounds for his eighth of the season. One of the main catalyst’s of the Huskies run was Brett Carmichael (Elk River, Minn.), who scored all 11 of his points in the second half to finish at the final Husky in double figures.
Carmichael and fellow senior Craig Coenen (Kaukauna, Wis.) – who finished with five points and six boards – played their final game in the Cardinal and Black this afternoon. Speaking of his seniors, after the game head coach Kevin Schlagel stated, "Our leadership this season has been outstanding; I can’t say enough about our two seniors, the strong character of this team is a reflection of our senior leadership."
Trying to sum up a season that saw his team string together winning streaks of six and seven games, beat top-10 teams and conference giants both at home in front of the Halenbeck Hall faithful, as well as in hostile environments on the road, all on their way to a NSIC Tournament title and berth in the Central Regional, Schlagel had to say, "we battled through a lot and we did a good job of stepping up, we battled through injuries and we had guys get a lot better because they had to step up. I would say this is one of my prouder years in coaching."
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