No. 8 Dragons Return Home to Face Wayne State and No. 1 Augustana
The No. 8-ranked Minnesota State University Moorhead men’s basketball team returns home this weekend to face Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference rivals in Wayne State and Augustana.
Both games will be televised live on WDAY’Z Xtra with Steve d’Eustachio and Jared Bledsoe on the call. The games will also be broadcast live online at msumdragons.com.
Friday evening the Wildcats of Wayne State will travel to Alex Nemzek Fieldhouse for an 8 p.m. matchup. The Wildcats, who are 5-17 overall and 3-13 in the NSIC, are coached by Brian Dolan who is in his third season at the helm of the program. As a team, Wayne State averages 75.4 points per game while giving up 84.5 points. They grab 32.6 rebounds per game and dish out 13.7 assists while swiping 4.8 steals. Sophomore guard Matt Thomas leads the Wildcats in scoring at 16.6 points per game and has 3.1 assists. Sophomore forward Jordan Cornelius has 10.1 points and five rebounds per game while freshman forward Adam Moon has 9.3 points and 4.5 boards per game. Wayne State currently hold a 5-17 all-time advantage over the Dragons, however, the Dragons defeated the Wildcats by a score of 89-60 in their last meeting.
Saturday afternoon at 6 p.m. the Dragons will host No. 1-ranked Augustana in the Fill the Fieldhouse event. The Vikings are currently 19-1 on the season and 16-0 in conference play. Augustana leads the NSIC in 11 categories including scoring offense (92.7), scoring margin (22.4), and rebounding (40.6). They also lead the nation in assist-turnover margin and scoring margin. As a team, the Vikings shoot 49.8 percent from the field while averaging 92.7 points per game. They have 20.20 assists and grab 6.75 steals per game. Augustana is home to NSIC Pre-Season Player of the Year in senior forward Daniel Jansen who has 20.3 points and 8.4 boards per game. Senior forward Casey Schilling has 18.1 points and 9.2 rebounds per game while senior guard Alex Richter has 14.5 points and 0.9 assists per game. The Vikings are coached by Tom Billeter who is in his 13th year with the Vikings. The Vikings currently hold a two-game advantage in the all-time series record between the two teams at 5-7. In their last meeting, the Dragons fell to the Vikings, 98-82.
A LOOK BACK AT LAST WEEK…
The Dragons split last weekend falling to Concordia-St. Paul in double overtime before bouncing back and defeating Minnesota State in overtime.
The Golden Bears scored with two seconds remaining in the second overtime to stun the No. 3-ranked Minnesota State University Moorhead men’s basketball team, 98-97 on Friday night. Senior guard Tyler Vaughan led all Dragons with 23 points, nine rebounds and two assists while senior center Isaac Sevlie had 20 points and six boards. Junior guard Aaron Lien added 17 points, five rebounds, three assists and a block while sophomore guard Tanner Kretchman had 16 points, eight assists and five boards. Junior forward Ayob Ayob put up 14 points and added two blocks and seven rebounds while senior guard Ngijol Songolo had seven points and three assists. MSUM shot 44.6 percent from the field on the game including 38 percent on the second half while the Golden Bears shot 42 percent on the game. CSP outrebounded the Dragons 44-43 and the CSP bench had 15 points while the Dragon bench had 14. The Dragons committed 14 turnovers compared to eight for the Golden Bears.
For the second game on the weekend, the Dragons would go into overtime, this time with the Mavericks of Minnesota State. MSUM would outlast Minnesota State, 94-89. Senior center Isaac Sevlie led all scorers with 33 points and nine rebounds while sophomore guard Tanner Kretchman had 18 points, five assists and two steals. Junior forward Ayob Ayob added 17 points and six rebounds and senior guard Ngijol Songolo had 16 points and 10 rebounds. MSUM shot 44 percent from the field while Minnesota State shot 46 percent. The Dragons outrebounded the Mavericks 47-41 and grabbed 12 offensive boards. MSUM held the lead for 21:51 while the Mavericks led for 17:24 of the game.
HIGHEST RANKED GAME IN MSUM HISTORY…
Saturday’s game against Augustana will mark the highest ranked game in Minnesota State University Moorhead’s history pegging No. 8-ranked MSUM against No. 1-ranked Augustana. The last time the Dragons hosted a No. 1-ranked team was on Feb. 13, 2007 when MSUM battled Winona State. The Dragons would fall to Winona State 89-56 in that match.
Combined, the two teams lead NSIC in 12 of the 17 stated categories in 12 of the 17 stated categories including scoring offense, scoring margin, and rebounds. They also have an athlete on their team who leads the conference in six of the 12 main categories, including Sevlie with scoring at 22.0 points per game and field goal percentage with 63 percent while Schilling of Augustana leads the conference in rebounds with 9.2 per game and Richter leads the NSIC in three-point field goal percentage.
DRAGON DOMINATION…
The Dragons are currently the only team in the country who has won over 20 games on the 2015-16 season. MSUM is currently 22-3 on the season and looks to improve upon that record this weekend.