Huskies Lack Offensive Spark in Loss to Mavericks

Some nights just aren’t your night and for the St. Cloud State Huskies, Friday night was not their night. The Huskies never got the offense humming and fell 70-52 to a visiting Mankato State Mavericks team that had a matching 18-10 record to St. Cloud. With plenty of postseason seeding implications a playoff-like atmosphere came over Hallenbeck Hall. St. Cloud came in with confidence having tasted victory but a month ago against these Mavericks in Mankato.

 St. Cloud got off to as strong a start with Wyatt Hawks winning the opening tip and the squad finishing their first possession with a Lucas Morgan three point make. That 3-0 lead the Huskies held at that point was the largest lead they ever held, in fact the final time the Huskies led the game at all was after a Nate Dahl free throw gave them a 4-2 lead early in the action. St. Cloud’s problems started up quickly offensively, after hitting the Morgan three just 21 seconds into play the Huskies wouldn’t make another field goal for four minutes and 57 seconds. They finally did find a bucket through a Lee Marks offensive rebound and putback. In that time the defense did its best to stand tall but the Huskies allowed an 11-1 run over the near five minutes.

 Things continued to go from bad to worse, after the Huskies clawed back to an 11-8 deficit, Lucas Morgan, who had five of St. Cloud’s eight points, picked up his second foul of the game with over 13 minutes left in the half forcing him to take a seat. The Mavs took advantage a few minutes later taking a 15-12 lead and ballooning it to 23-12 thanks to an 8-0 run that included a three pointer and transition bucket from Justin Eagins that gave Mankato a decisive edge. Huskies called the game’s opening timeout and came out of it with some fire. Kynan Phillipe knocked down a triple and Lee Marks picked up another offensive rebound putback for a quick five points cutting the lead to eight with 8:30 to go in the first half. Unfortunately the Huskies were plagued with a familiar problem at this stage. An inability to consistently create offense.

 St. Cloud suffered another scoring drought, this time going without a point for nearly four minutes. Anish Ramlall finally put an end to the dry spell with a bit over four minutes to go in the half but damage had been done and St. Cloud went into halftime trailing 39-25. One doesn’t have to look any farther than the shooting numbers to find the culprit of the deficit. In the first half Mankato shot 54% from the field and 44% from long distance. Meanwhile St. Cloud shot 35% from the field and 22% from three. The Mavericks also got to the free throw line nine times while the Huskies only got there twice.

 Kyreese Willingham was a problem for St. Cloud all night, he finished with 19 and dropped 14 of those in the opening 20 minutes. Meanwhile Lee Marks led the way for St. Cloud with six points, four of which came off second chance points. The Huskies just couldn’t get the same looks inside the way they did the January 16 matchup against Mankato.

Now Wyatt Hawks was seeing a healthy amount of double teams when he’d post up and be denied entry passes all together if possible. Lucas Morgan was in foul trouble in the first half picking up three fouls which really made it difficult for him to get into the flow of the game at times. Morgan scored 23 points and Hawks had 13 in Mankato the first time around. So when those two combined for nine points in the first half the Huskies couldn’t recreate those points.

Coach Henderson said in a previous interview that the pressure Morgan puts on defenses with his attack and effective free throw shooting is something that makes him unique. It was clear the Huskies were missing out on that.

 For the second half the Huskies deserve full credit for grit and fight. The squad showed no let up despite the deficit. Sadly, it was the same story shooting the ball and St. Cloud never put together a true run. The Mavericks led by double figures the entire half on their way to the 70-52 win. A frustrating night indeed for St. Cloud who had fewer turnovers, more bench points, and five more offensive rebounds yet found themselves down big most of the game.

“We have to manufacture offense throughout. We can’t live with three or four minute droughts,” said Coach Henderson.

 A major bright spot in the evening’s game was Lee Marks who put up 11 points, only two off of his career high. It’s also his third time scoring in double figures over his last five games. Even more impressive were the five offensive rebounds he gobbled up with multiple of those chances being converted by either himself or others. Nonetheless, with NSIC playoffs right around the corner the Huskies will look to make sure Friday was only a little bump in the road and get back in the win column. They host Winona State Saturday night at Hallenbeck Hall.