MANKATO, Minn. – After trailing for majority of the game, the St. Cloud State University men’s basketball team took a late lead from Minnesota State University, Mankato in the final two minutes of play and held on for a 77-75 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference road win Saturday night in the Taylor Center.
The Huskies (7-1, 3-1 NSIC) earned their first road win of the season as junior Shaun Jensen (Spring Lake Park) buried a jump shot with a minute and 37 seconds to go in the game to take the Huskies’ first lead at 73-72 since the 8:20 mark of the first half.
A little over a minute later, Jensen hit another deep jump shot to put the Huskies up 75-72, before junior Theo Rothstein (St. Michael) grabbed a rebound on a MSU missed three-pointer to put senior captain Brett Putz (Forest City, Iowa) at the line where he buried both free throws to put the game out of reach with 17 seconds to go in the game.
The Mavericks drop to 2-5 overall and 1-2 in the NSIC with the loss, as they could not hold onto a lead that went as high as seven points with 11:01 to go in the game.
Jensen finished the night with a game-high 17 points to go with two rebounds, six assists and three steals, while Putz finished the night with 15 points after a strong first half of play.
Putz scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half, nearly made half of the Huskies’ field goals in the first 20 minutes and reached a milestone that only three other players in at SCSU have done in the school’s rich basketball history.
With his first made three-pointer of the game at the 11:25 mark in the first half, Putz reached 200 total made three-pointers in his career as he joins Dave Dreas (250), Forest Witt (238) and Joel McDonald (222) in the 200-club.
Rothstein finished the night with 14 points, while sophomore Tim Bergstraser (St. Cloud) rounded out the Husky double-digit scorer’s with 10 points to go with eight rebounds and a blocked shot.
The Huskies shot 47 percent from the field (25-57) for the night, while making 18 of 25 from the free throw line, while the Mavericks were nearly 46 percent from the field (25-55) and outrebounded SCSU 40-27 after grabbing 14 offensive rebounds.
The Huskies will remain on the road for a NSIC game with Concordia University-St. Paul at 4:00 p.m. Saturday, December 17 on the CSU campus. SCSU will then be off until the New Year.