NSIC/Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament

Sunday, March 8, 2009
NSIC/Sanford Health Basketball Tournament Championship
Site - McCown Gym - Winona, Minn.
No. 4 Minnesota State 89 vs. No. 3 St. Cloud State 91 Recap | Box

Saturday, March 7, 2009
NSIC/Sanford Health Basketball Tournament Semifinals
Site - McCown Gym - Winona, Minn.
No. 3 St. Cloud State 91 at No.2 Winona State 77 Recap | Box
No. 8 Northern State 85 vs. No 4 Minnesota State 88 OT Recap | Box

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
2009 NSIC/Sanford Health Men’s Basketball Tournament First Round
Site - Highest Seed hosts first round games
No. 8 Northern State 72 at No. 1 SMSU 63 Recap | Box
No. 7 Concordia-St. Paul 79 at No. 2 Winona State 87 Recap | Box
No. 6 Augustana 84 at No. 3 St. Cloud State 91 Recap | Box
No. 5 Minnesota Duluth 74 at No. 4 Minnesota State 101 Recap | Box

No. 4 Minnesota State 89 vs. No. 3 St. Cloud State 91

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 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 largetst 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 one-of-two 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 is 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.

No. 8 Northern State 85 vs. No. 4 Minnesota State 88 OT

Winona, Minn. –  Minnesota State junior forward Jadee Jones drained a three as time expired to propel Minnesota State to an 86-83 overtime victory over Northern State Saturday evening in the semifinals of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference/Sanford Health tournament Saturday evening.  With the victory, Minnesota State will play St. Cloud State Sunday afternoon for the league’s tournament championship and an automatic berth into the NCAA Division II tournament.

“I have never been so proud of our team,” said head coach Matt Margenthaler.  “We fought for this win and we had a lot of fun.  This was a great win for our team.”
With the victory, Margenthaler passed former MSU head coach and current NSIC Commissioner Butch Raymond for second on the school’s all-time wins chart with 165.  Raymond had 165 wins for the Mavericks from 1972-84.

“I saw out of the corner of my eye that I had three seconds left,” said Jones.  “I was actually worried I would step out of bounds.  It felt really good when it left my hand.

The Mavericks opened the game with an 8-0 advantage, holding Northern State without a point for the game’s first three minutes and 43 seconds.  Minnesota State would maintain a lead for the game’s entire first half, opening a 41-39 advantage at the break.  Minnesota State, which led by as many as 16, shot 50 percent in the opening half, forced the Wolves into eight turnovers.

The second half played much like the final five minutes of the first half – close.  Northern State would open a seven point lead at the 13:23 mark before for the Mavericks stormed back to tie the game.  Down the stretch neither team could pull away as 40 minutes of basketball was not enough.

Senior forward Jake Morrow finished with 20 points on 8-of-20 shooting. It marked his 10th, 20-point game this season and his second in as many games. Junior center Travis Nelson finished with 22 points, on 9-of-13 shooting and 4-of-6 from the line. It was also his 10th, 20 point game this year and the Mavericks as a squad have seen 26 players score 20 or more points in a game.

Jones added 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-7 from beyond the line.  Senior guard Harry Boyce added a season-high 11 points for the victors.
Senior forward Mitch Gosson led MSU with a team-high 15 rebounds while junior point guard Jesse Clark added nine assists which tied his career-high.

The Mavericks shot 46.6 percent for the game, while NSU connected on 48.5 percent of its shots.  The Mavericks scored 52 of their points in the pain and its bench outscored the Wolves, 18-4. With the win, the Mavericks improved to 25-7 on the season.

No. 3 St. Cloud State at No. 2 Winona State

Winona, Minn. – No. 3 seed St. Cloud State raced out to a 47-31 halftime lead and went on to defeat No. 2 seeded Winona State 91-77 in the first semfinal game of the NSIC / Sanford Health Men's Baskebtall Tournament. The loss ends Winona State's 10 game NSIC Tournament win streak. SCSU advance to Sunday's championship game against the Northern State/Minnesota State winner. The tournament champion advance to the NCAA Central Region Touranment next weekend.

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. 

No. 8 Northern State 72 at No. 1 Southwest Minnesota State 63

MARSHALL, Minn. – Everyone knew this game was going to be a dogfight.  The Northern State University Wolves were fighting for their playoff lives, while the Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs, winners of 15 straight and the hottest team in the NCAA Central Region, were fighting for the right to host the remainder of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament.

In the end, the night belonged to the Wolves, who pulled off the 72-63 victory over the Mustangs, ending their school-record streak and tournament dreams.  The win also breaks a 4-game losing streak for the Wolves, their longest since losing four straight early in the 2002-03 season.

The Wolves entered the game fighting fire with fire.  NSU raced out to the early lead, going 9 of 15 through the first 9:30 of the game, while holding SMSU to just 3 of 11 from the floor in the same stretch, eventually building a 23-11 advantage with less than seven minutes left in the half.

The Wolves, however, had also built up a substantial 8-2 lead in team fouls, sending the Mustangs to the free throw line 19 time in the first half, while getting to the stripe just four times themselves.  SMSU, however, made just 9 of those 19 free attempts, allowing the Wolves to escape into the halftime break leading 36-22.

The top-seeded Mustangs then mounted a slow, steady second-half comeback, cutting a 16-point deficit into just a 5-point game with less than two minutes left in the game.  Three Mitch Boeck (Arlington, S.D.) free throws later, the Wolves were back up by eight at 63-57, but SMSU’s Ross DeMassi cut it back to a 6-point game with a tip-in with 1:01 left to play.

Finally forced to foul to stop the clock, the Mustangs sent the Wolves nine times in the final minute.  NSU made seven of those nine attempts, and put an exclamation point on the game when sophomore Brett Newton (Tyler, Minn.) was fouled on a break-away lay-up as time was winding down.  Newton converted on the 3-point play to put the game out of reach.

The Wolves got a huge game out of senior Kyle Schwan, who was 7-for-11 from the floor for a career-high 20 points.  NSU senior Kevin Ratzsch (Bloomington, Ill.) had 19 points and 14 boards for the Wolves.

The Wolves will now face the Minnesota State in the semifinal round of the tournament.

No. 7 Concordia-St. Paul 79 at No. 2 Winona State 87

Winona, Minn. - No. 25-ranked Winona State University went on a 23-4 run to start the second half and then made all ten of its final free throw attempts in posting an 87-79 win over Concordia University St. Paul in opening-round play of the 2009 NSIC/Standford Health Tournament held in McCown Gymnasium.

The Warriors trailed the Golden Bears, 44-34, at the halftime break, as CSP outscored WSU 34-24 in nearly 15 minutes of play in the opening period.

But the Warriors came out to start the second half in a blaze and outscored CSP 12-2 to tie the game at 46- all and then wrapped up a 23-4 overall run with an 11-2 streak for a, 57-48, lead with 13:24 to play.

From there WSU upped its lead to 12 points, 67-55, with 8:21 left to play, but the Golden Bears countered with a 19-12 run of its own to get within in five of the Warriors, 79-74, with 38 seconds left on the game clock.

By that time Curtrel Robinson and Travis Whipple had begun their free throw shooting accuracy. Robinsin, who set a career-high free throw mark with six free thROWS, hit two charity shots before closing out the WSU scoring with two more free throws. In between Whipple went six-for-six at the line to keep CSP in check. Overall the Warriors were 19-for-21 from the line.

For the night Whipple and David Johnson each scored 20 points, with each scoring 12 and 11 points respectively in the second half. Josh Korth also scored 11 points in the second half and finished with 13 and Joel Armstrong netted 15 points to round out the WSU double-figure scoring.

A lot of that scoring came on assists from Whipple, who recorded his first career double-double by adding ten assists to his 20 points.

No. 6 Augustana 84 at No. 3 St. Cloud State 91

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, make 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 compare to a 47.8% field goal mark and 82.6% free throw tally for the Huskies. 

SCSU did hold a 34-to-38 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. 

No. 5 Minnesota Duluth 74 at No. 4 Minnesota State 101

Mankato, Minn. -  The Minnesota State men’s basketball team opened the 2009 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference/Sanford Health Tournament with a 101-74 victory over Minnesota Duluth.  The game was played in front of 1,128 people in the Taylor Center on the campus of Minnesota State University.
The win marked MSU’s sixth 100-point game this season.

UMD would lead for most of the game’s first five minutes before the Mavericks took over.  MSU took advantage of 11 Bulldog turnovers in the first half, turning them into 15 points en route to opening a 52-37 halftime lead.

Senior guard Jadee Jones and sophomore point guard Marcus Hill each had 12 points in the first half. Jones was 4-of-5 from the field, and 4-of-4 from the three-point line, while Hill was 4-of-5 from the floor, including 2-of-2 from the three-point line and the charity stripe in the opening 20 minutes.

“I thought we really picked up the energy midway through the first half,” said head coach Matt Margenthaler. “Our bench came in and gave us great minutes.”
UMD opened the second half cutting the Maverick lead to single-digits, however the Mavericks answered, pushing their lead back to double-digits and never look back.  Minnesota State would open a lead as large as 27 late in the second half.

Senior forward Jake Morrow finished with a game-high 23 points, marking his 10th 20-plus point game this season.    Morrow shot 8-of-11 from the floor and 4-of-7 from the three-point line.  Hill added 20 points off the bench on 7-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-4 from downtown.  To date, the Mavericks have had 24 players score 20 points or more in a game.

Jones added 16 points, while senior forward Mitch Gosson recorded his sixth double-double of the season and the 11th of his career with a 14-point, 10-rebound performance. Junior guard Jesse Clark added 12 points to go with a game-high six assists.

MSU finished forcing 17 UMD turnovers and converting them into 25 points.  The Mavericks also outscored the Bulldogs, 17-2 in transition and 32-14 on the bench.  Both teams finished with 29 rebounds.

The Mavericks shot 57.9 percent from the floor and 61.1 percent from beyond the three point line.  MSU also converted on 24-of-28 free throws (85.7 percent).
The Mavericks advance to Saturday’s NSIC/Sanford Health semifinals against second-seeded Winona State.  Game time for that game will be announced Thursday morning.

Notes: Minnesota Duluth won the only meeting between the two school’s earlier this season, 73-65, on Jan. 31, in Duluth…With the win, MSU improved to 9-9 in the postseason under head coach Matt Margenthaler…The Mavericks are 4-1 in the Taylor center in postseason play and are now 2-0 against UMD in postseason play

Ticket Information

Tickets will go on sale at 8:00 a.m. CST onFriday. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Ticket Alternative website at www.ticketalternative.com or by calling 1-877-725-8849.

Saturday will be considered one session; one ticket will get you in for all games. The same is true for Sunday.

Ticket Prices
$10 – Reserved Seat
$8 – Adult General Admission
$6 – Senior General Admission
$2 – Student General Admission
Children under 5 will be admitted FREE.

Saturday: Will Call windows will open at 10:30 a.m.; Doors to the gymnasium will open at 11:00 a.m.

Sunday: Will Call windows will open at 12:30 p.m.; Doors to the gymnasium will open at 1:00 p.m.