MSUM men return home to host Huskies, Bulldogs in regular season finale

The Minnesota State University Moorhead men’s basketball team (6-20, 4-16 NSIC) will wrap up regular season play as it hosts St. Cloud State University and University of Minnesota Duluth.

HOW TO FOLLOW…
St. Cloud State: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/msum/index.htm
Minnesota Duluth: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/msum/index.htm

THIS WEEKEND…
The Dragons return home to host St. Cloud State, Friday at 8 p.m. and Minnesota Duluth, Saturday at 6 p.m. in their regular season finale.

LOOKING BACK…
MSUM dropped a pair of road games last weekend, falling to Bemidji State (80-73) and Minnesota Crookston (73-89).

In the Dragons’ loss to the Beavers, Tanner Kretchman led with season highs of 27 points and seven rebounds, while Addison Park and Johnny Beeninga had 15 and ten points, respectively. Travaun Coad led with nine rebounds.

Against UMC, Beeninga and Park scored career highs of 28 and 25 points, respectively. Kretchman and Coad each had seven points, while Coad led with eight rebounds.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION…
RV-St. Cloud State University
The Huskies are 20-6 overall this season, with a 16-4 NSIC mark. They have now won nine straight games after defeating U-Mary (79-57) and Minot State (96-60) last weekend. Gage Davis leads the Huskies averaging 19.1 points per game, while Jon Averkamp is averaging 18.0 points. Sean Smith leads SCSU with 8.7 rebounds per game, while Davis leads with 3.7 assists per game. As a team, St. Cloud State is second in the NSIC in field goal percentage made at 50.1 percent (774- of-1545) and lead in assists per game with 17.7. The Huskies average 79.2 points per game, while holding its opponents to 67.5 points. Matt Reimer is in his fourth season as head coach with a record of 50-42.

University of Minnesota Duluth
Minnesota Duluth is 11-15 overall and 7-13 in the NSIC. Last weekend the Bulldogs beat Minot State, 67-60 in double overtime before defeating U-Mary, 67-60. Brandon Myer leads the way for UMD, averaging 20.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Logan Rohrscheib is averaging 12.7 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. Trevor Entwisle leads the team with 4.9 assists per game and 1.2 blocks per game. Minnesota Duluth is being outscored by its opponents, 75.7-70.8. The Bulldogs’ opponents also hold a 34.4-32.7 edge in rebounds.Minnesota Duluth is led by head coach Matt Bowen, who is in his sixth season with a record of 55-87.

MORE ABOUT MSUM…
Kretchman Breaks Records
Senior Tanner Kretchman became the all-time career assist leader earlier this season in MSUM’s victory over Northern Michigan. Kretchman now has 549 career assists. For the first time in the school’s history Kretchman has posted back-to-back seasons with at least 200 assists. In MSUM’s loss to Northern State he became the first MSUM player to reach 500 assists. Kretchman is also seventh all-time in scoring with 1,569 points and is now second in career three-point field goals made with 258. The senior is also second-best in the NSIC this season in three-point field goals made, averaging 2.9 per game.

Coad Hits 8th Double-Double
Junior guard Travaun Coad hit his eighth double-double of the season against Upper Iowa, Feb. 3 with 14 points and 12 rebounds. The junior guard became the first Dragon to earn a double-double in four or more consecutive games since Alex Novak (Feb. 16-27, 2013) when he had five in a row Jan. 5-19. Coad leads the Dragons in double-doubles this season.

Consistency From Park
Junior Addison Park has been a steady player for the Dragons to rely on this season. Park has scored in double-digits in 17 games this season, including a career-high of 25 points at Minnesota Crookston. The junior is averaging 4.6 rebound per game and also holds a team-best in blocks with 15. Park leads the Dragons in field goal percentage with .580 (131-of-226), ranking tenth in the NSIC.

Sophomores Shine
With only one senior on the team this year some younger players stepped up to take a bigger role on the team. The Dragons starting lineup includes sophomores Johnny Beeninga and Matt Anderson. Beeninga scored a career-high 28 points against Minnesota Crookston last weekend. He is second on the team, averaging 14.2 points per game and adds 56 assists. Anderson is averaging 5.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game, including a season-high of nine rebounds at Concordia-St. Paul. He also adds six blocks and four steals.

Offensive Distribution
The Dragons have gotten some great offensive distribution this season with four players averaging at least 12.0 points per game. Tanner Kretchman (15.9), Johnny Beeninga (14.2) , Travaun Coad (13.2), and Addison Park (12.1).

All-Time vs. Opponents
MSUM will meet St. Cloud State for the 130th time with the Huskies leading the series, 47-82. When the teams met previously this season, SCSU won, 69-55.

The Dragons and the Bulldogs are meeting for the 123rd time with UMD leading the series 42-80. Earlier this season Minnesota Duluth defeated MSUM, 83-74.

Read the article on MSUMDragons.com.