WHAT'S AHEAD...
MOORHEAD, Minn. – The No. 7-ranked Minnesota State University Moorhead men's basketball team will play in the semifinals of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference/Sanford Health men's basketball tournament on Monday afternoon. The Dragons will face the Marauders of the University of Mary.
The games will also be broadcast live online at msumdragons.com with Dragon broadcaster Steve d'Eustachio on the call.
The Dragons are the #1 seed while the Marauders are seeded third, both of the North division.
U-Mary defeated Minnesota State Mankato by a score of 96-91 Saturday to punch their ticket to the semifinal game.
Mary is 19-11 on the season and ended the conference season with a 12-10 record.
MSUM has faced U-Mary twice this season, the first time defeating them 98-81, and the second time falling to the Marauders 77-73. In their overall series, the Dragons hold a two game advantage over Mary at 10-8.
The Marauders are putting up 80.7 points per game while allowing 76.7. They have 12.5 assists and 6.6 steals per game while grabbing 37.2 rebounds per match. They are led in scoring and in rebounding by junior forward Bryan Jefferson who has 15.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Senior guard Marquealis Edwards has 13.2 points per game and dishes out 3.6 assists per game.
The winner of the semifinal game will advance to play the winner of the other semi which features Augustana and Winona State.
A LOOK BACK AT THE LAST GAME...
On Saturday the Dragons took on Upper Iowa in the first quarterfinal of the NSIC/Sanford Health men's basketball tournament where they defeated the Peacocks by a final score of 98-82.
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.
Fans can catch all things Dragons on the #DragonsMarchOn Championship website.
