MOORHEAD, Minn. – With a stifling and physical defensive effort, the MSUM men's basketball team cruised to a 78-52 win over the NSIC South's top team, Wayne State. Four Dragons scored in double figures as the team secured their ninth consecutive victory this evening in Nemzek Fieldhouse.
The Dragons started hot on the offensive end against a Wayne State team that came into tonight's on a three-game win streak. MSUM turned the Wildcats over four times in the first five minutes en route to an early 12-2 lead. While the Wildcats went on a short a 6-0 run, the Dragons answered with an 11-0 run of their own, taking a 25-10 lead with under 10 minutes remaining in the first half.
Both teams struggled to score the ball in the later stages of the half with MSUM going on a stretch where they shot one of seven from the field.
Jacob Beeninga scored 15 points in the first half as the Dragons took a 34-24 lead into the locker room. In the half, MSUM shot an efficient 46.9 percent from the field to Wayne State's 34.6 percent.
The game slowed down in the early portion of the second half with a combined six fouls committed between the two teams. Both MSUM and Wayne State opened the half shooting three of eight from the field with the Dragons keeping their lead at 11 points. MSUM would explode after the under 15 media timeout, going on a 12-0 run to push their lead to 20 points.
Wayne State would answer that with an 8-0 run of their own to cut the Dragon lead to 12. From there, the Dragons would command a majority of the game, expanding their lead to 20+ points late in contest. In the end, MSUM coasted to a 78-52 win over the NSIC South's top team. It is the ninth consecutive win for
Tim Bergstraser's team and it is the seventh straight win by 14 or more points.
Coming into tonight, Wayne State was averaging 75.2 points per game as a team. The Dragons held that potent offense to just 52 points on 37.7 percent shooting. MSUM also turned the Wildcats over 17 times in the win.
Top Dragons
Steve d'Eustachio's Stat of the Game
Tonight was the 12th straight win against Wayne State which marks the longest win streak against any other NSIC team in the past quarter century, overtaking an 11-game win streak over Minnesota Crookston from 2012-2018. Here is the current list of Dragon winning streaks against their opponents:
- UM Morris: 14 games
- Wayne State: 12 games
- Valley City State: 12 games
- Mayville State: 12 games
- Concordia (Moorhead): 9 games
- Bemidji State: 6 games
- St. Cloud State: 6 games
Up Next
Augustana comes to Moorhead for a match-up with the Dragons (12-2, 7-1 NSIC) tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. The Vikings fell in Aberdeen tonight to Northern State, 86-64.
