Box Score ST. CLOUD, Minn. –  The Minnesota State University Moorhead men's basketball team took an 11-point lead into halftime, but St. Cloud State rallied in the second half to earn a 75-67 win over the Dragons in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action Friday night in St. Cloud, Minn.

MSUM fell to 16-9 overall and 10-9 in the league with the loss, while St. Cloud State, which leads the NSIC North Division by two games over Northern State, improved to 18-5 overall and 14-5 in the league.

Senior Anthony Tucker paced the Dragons with a game-high 22 points. He also added five rebounds and four assists. Senior Eric Olson had a career-high 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting to go along with seven rebounds, while senior Alex Novak added nine points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore Jordan Riewer had nine points and six assists for MSUM.

The Dragons shot 47.1 percent (24-of-51) for the game, compared to 39.7 percent (25-of-63) for St. Cloud State. The Huskies had big advantages at the free-throw line (20-of-30, compared to 12-of-17) for MSUM) and turnovers (five, compared to 18 for MSUM). St. Cloud State also had a 24-9 edge in points off of turnovers and 30-12 edge in points in the paint. The Dragons had a 40-35 edge in rebounding, including a huge 26-12 edge in the first half.

MSUM got off to a good start and played solid throughout the first half, leading by as many as 16. The Dragons scored the first five points of the game and held a 14-9 lead at the 11:03 mark before a 9-0 run stretched their advantage to 23-9 with 7:24 left in the first half.  Freshman Brady Wohler converted a three-point play, while Riewer, Olson and freshman Isaac Sevlie each had two points during the spurt.

The Dragon advantage grew to 32-16 when Tucker buried a three at the 3:59 mark of the half. MSUM took a 36-25 lead into halftime, shooting 48.1 percent (13-of-27) compared to 30 percent (9-of-30) for St. Cloud State.
MSUM led by a 41-30 tally two minutes into the second half when Tucker hit another three. The Huskies then began to whittle away at the Dragon lead, and over the next 10-plus minutes, outscored the Dragons 24-10 to take a 54-51 lead with 8:46 left.

The game was tied at 58-58 when freshman Tyler Vaughan buried a three, and after a SCSU basket, Olson re-tied the game at 60-60 with a score. However, St. Cloud State scored the next six points to take a 66-60 lead with 2:04 left.
Tucker hit a jumper to cut the lead to 66-62 with 1:54 left, but the Huskies were able to ice the game from the line by going 7-of-8 over the final 45 seconds to secure the win.

MSUM will look to end its NSIC road regular season on a strong note on Saturday at Minnesota-Duluth (6 p.m. tipoff).

Steve d'Eustachio Stat of the Game: The Dragons have not beaten the Huskies in St. Cloud since their 54-52 victory on Dec. 8, 1983.