Article by Luke Paider. Photo by Zach Rudeen.
St. Cloud State is on the road this weekend for a battle against the Moorhead Dragons. This will serve as a rematch of the Dec. 13 matchup at Halenbeck Hall that was a coming out party for the Huskies. The then 5-5 St. Cloud squad took the No. 6 Dragons to the limit. Though the game ended in heartbreak for the Huskies who fell 75-73 with Wyatt Hawk’s game-tying layup blocked as time expired one thing was clear, the Huskies had turned a corner.
The St. Cloud team has not been the same since, they dropped to a 5-6 record with the loss but boasted a 9-3 record in the following twelve games. Head Coach Quincy Henderson spoke on how big steps forward defensively have changed the complexion of the team. The proof is in the pudding as over this stretch St. Cloud is allowing seven less points per game than in the first 11 games pushing their point differential from negative one to plus five.
Sophomore Guard Nate Dahl put it simply, “You’re not going to win basketball games if you don’t talk on defense especially in this league.”
But where did the jump come from? According to Dahl that credit goes to a Dec. 6 game against No. 20 Minot State. St. Cloud went up to Minot and suffered their worst defeat of the season losing 58-91.
Dahl said, “Everyone had to take a step back and look in the mirror and find out what kind of team we are.”
Find out they did as one week later they had the Moorhead game and haven’t looked back. Moorhead has faltered a bit having lost six of their last eight games after being hit with an injury bug, but still they probably won’t make it easy on the Huskies. They still hold a 12-8 record and are 7-7 in the NSIC. The Dragons are led by Logan Kinsey who is averaging 14.5 points per game on 46% shooting and JaMir Price at 13.8 points per game and 47% shooting including a career high 29 points last Friday in a win vs Augustana. St. Cloud will need to do their work offensively from inside as Moorhead has allowed the fewest three point makes in the NSIC.
St. Cloud is leading the NSIC in both free throw makes and attempts. Coach Henderson said “Getting to the free throw line has been a focus for us.”
The team is clearly responding to that highlighted recently by Sophomore Lucas Morgan who has hit 30 straight free throws. His last miss was on Jan. 8 vs Concordia. Free throws were a major part of the first matchup with the teams combining for 67 free throw attempts. The Huskies will need to be better at defending without fouling after giving the Dragons 38 of those attempts the first time around.
St. Cloud and Moorhead played an absolute classic a month and a half ago but both teams will look drastically different on Saturday as the Huskies look to prove the improvement they’ve shown so far is here to stay and the Dragons will no doubt fight to right the ship.
Coach Henderson said it best, “You’re never safe in the NSIC and if you think you are you’re a fool.”
You can follow the game live on the NSIC Network at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
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