The Bemidji State University (BSU) Beavers couldn’t seem to keep up at Saturday night's men's basketball game against the St. Cloud State University (SCSU) Huskies. St. Cloud remained in the lead throughout the game and beat the Beavers, 71-107.
The Huskies started the game off with a 3-pointer and quickly jumped ahead 2-10 within the first few minutes. Even though they were on home turf, the Beavers weren’t prepared right away for the fast-paced style the Huskies were playing and were forced to a call a time-out after St. Cloud's Theo Rothstein dunked the ball three minutes into the game.
Senior guard Seth Haake supported the team with a 3-point jump shot, making the score 8-14 at 15:08 minutes. But BSU continued to miss passes and fought to turnover the ball. With 12:42 minutes on the clock, Haake rebounded the ball, then passed down to guard Noah Shepherd for a 2-point layup.
With 10 minutes left in the first half, sophomore Jake Lindstrom added 3 points to the board, making the total score 19-31.
SCSU continued to run their plays, rebound and gain points with dunks and layups, making it hard for the Beavers to close the gap in the score. With five minutes left in the first half, Lindstrom made a layup and Shepherd hit a 3-pointer as BSU fought to catch up.
Once Haake got his hand on a rebound--totaling five rebounds in the first half--he raced down the court with two minutes left on the clock and struggled to hang onto the ball. The first half of the game ended with St. Cloud in the lead, 36-50.
“The second half we tried to play more aggressive on defense and post up on our plays,” said Shepherd.
But the Huskies came on the court strong and gained 4 points immediately with free throws and another dunk from Rothstein.
Although Haake continued to make headway with layups and assists, the Beavers fouled consistently, giving the Huskies more free throws and allowing them to keep a big lead. With nine minutes left in the second half, SCSU’s Taylor Witt made a steal, raced down court and was fouled. His free throws put a 30-point difference on the board, 52-82.
“It was frustrating,” Shepherd said. "They came on strong. We started to choke when they put pressure on us.”
But the Beavers didn’t give up. Haake was the leading scorer with 17 points, seven rebounds, and three assists. Forward Patrick Cassidy wasn’t far behind with a total of 13 points throughout the game.
In the last 44 seconds of the game, guard Bryce Tesdahl hit a layup for 2 points. With 25 seconds left, Shepherd turned over the ball, and the two teams walked off the court and let the clock run out.
“Me and most of our players are young and just gaining experience,” Shepherd explained, remaining optimistic.
Freshman guard Lance Rongstad missed his second game in a row due to an injury suffered when the Beavers played Southwest Minnesota State University.
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