Men's Basketball | 2/27/2016 3:13:00 PM
Box Score SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Minnesota State University Moorhead men's basketball team advanced to the semi-finals of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference/Sanford Health with a 98-82 win over Upper Iowa on Saturday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The Dragons are now 29-4 overall. The Peacocks finished the year at 16-17. With the win MSUM will now face the winner of the Mary-Minnesota State game at noon on Monday in Sioux Falls.
Senior center
Isaac Sevlie led all scorers with 29 points and seven boards while sophomore guard
Tanner Kretchman was one point shy of his career-high with 24 points adding six assists and four rebounds. Junior guard
Aaron Lien added 18 and grabbed a career-high 11 boards. Junior forward
Ayob Ayob had 12 points and senior guard
Evan Holt put up eight points.
The Dragons shot a season-high 50 free throws, converting 40 of them which is one free-throw shy of the school record which was set in 1963 in the Dragons' match against NDSCS.
The Dragons shot 45 percent from the field on the game, and went 8-of-18 from beyond the arc for 44 percent. The Peacocks shot 37 percent from the field and grabbed 33 boards. MSUM had 47 boards and received 11 points from its bench.
The Dragons fell behind early in the match before two trips to the line for Park would bring the Dragons within one. The Dragons would take the lead on a jumper from Sevlie at 25-24 with 10 minutes to play in the first half. MSUM extended its lead to eight on a finger roll in the lane from Vaughan, making the score 38-30 with 6:14 to play. The Dragons' hot shooting would be the key to the locker room lead, as they shot an astounding 67% from beyond the arc going 8-of-12. Kretchman went 3-of-4 from three-point range in the first half. The Dragons took a 52-43 lead going into the locker room at halftime.
The Dragons would come out on fire in the second half, going on an 8-2 run led by six from Sevlie. MSUM would extend its lead to 20 with 16:25 to play in the game on a pair of free throws from Sevlie. The Peacocks would not go away easy, as they battled back and brought the game within 12 at 73-61, but the Dragons would go on another run and take a 79-65 lead with 10:27 to play in the second half. MSUM would extend its lead to 20 again at 87-67 with 6:12 to play in the match on a pair of free throws from Sevlie.
"Upper Iowa is an extremely strong offensive team, they are going to run a bunch of strings at you and you just have to stick with it. Obviously they started the game terrific and our guys handled themselves with great poise and we got out of it in decent shape", said MSUM head coach
Chad Walthall.
The Dragons will face the winner of the 2:30 game which features the Mavericks of Minnesota State and the Marauders of the University of Mary. The semifinal game will be played on Monday, Feb. 29 at 12 p.m.
Fans can catch all things Dragons on the
#DragonsMarchOn Championship website.
Steve d'Eustachio Stat of the Game: Today's win over Upper Iowa marks the third straight year that the Dragons have eliminated the Fighting Peacocks and marks the fourth time in the history of the tournament that this feat has been accomplished:
--2002-2004 – Minnesota Duluth beat Wayne St.
--2013-2015 – MSU Mankato beat Minnesota Crookston
--2013-2015 – Augustana beat Northern St.
--2014-2016 – Dragons beat Upper Iowa
