CROOKSTON, Minn. – Senior night was spoiled for the University of Minnesota Crookston men's basketball team on Fri., Feb. 12 as they lost a close one to St. Cloud State University 74-70. It was a tale of two halves for the Golden Eagles as a sloppy start found them down by as much as 23 points in the first half. Seemingly powered by the energy brought by the crowd, the Golden Eagles were able to rally in the second half; but eventually fell short. UMN Crookston moves to 2-11 (1-10 NSIC) and St. Cloud State moves to 6-7 (4-5 NSIC).

 Key Players – Leonard Dixon (Jr., F, Damascus, Ore.) led the way for the Golden Eagles, dropping 21 points on 56.3% shooting. The next leading scorer was Ibu Jassey-Demba (Sr., F, Birmingham, England) who was able to drop a season high 14 points on senior night. Following Demba was Brian Sitzmann (R-Jr., G, Savage, Minn.) who finished the night with 13. Josh Dilling (Fr., G, Oshkosh, Wis.) was the final Golden Eagle in double-digit scoring tonight with 11. Jassey-Demba led the Golden Eagles in rebounds with seven. Dixon and Quintin Winterfeldt (So., G, Waupun, Wis.) each contributed six. Sitzmann led the team in steals with four and Jassey-Demba added three of his own.

The Huskies were led in scoring by Anthony Roberts who had 23. Josh Tomasi was second for the Huskies with 16 and Matthew Willert was the only other Husky to crack double digits with 11.

Key Stats – The Golden Eagles, who struggled in the first half, were able to pick things up in the second. They wound up finishing the game with a better shooting percentage from the field (42.4% to 39.7%) than the Huskies. Neither team shot efficiently from beyond the arc as UMN Crookston shot 7-of-24, while St. Cloud State shot 5-of-22. The Golden Eagles also lead the Huskies in free throw percentage as well shooting 72.2% to their 71.4%. Rebounding was the key stat tonight as the Huskies were able to grab 49 and the Golden Eagles could only get 34. The Golden Eagles also led the Huskies in steals, with 11 to their seven, and turnovers (11 to 16).
 
Key Runs – It was a sloppy start for the Golden Eagles as they allowed St. Cloud State to open the game up on an 11-2 run. Dixon went on to score seven straight points for the Golden Eagles, helping them make it a game early on. Throughout the rest of the first half, the Huskies were able to use their size and defense to force UMN Crookston into bad shots and to get easy points on offense. The Huskies would go on a 19-7 run to close out the half up 47-24. The second half was all about the Golden Eagles. They seemed to feed off of the endless energy the crowd had shown even when down 23. The Golden Eagles had multiple runs in the second half including an 8-0 run early on and a 14-3 run near the end of the half. Dixon was able to drill a 25 foot three to increase the run to 17-3 and to bring the Golden Eagles within two. UMN Crookston was able to get a stop with ten seconds left and were still down just two points. However, a costly turnover would be the death of the comeback hopes for the Golden Eagles; as the Huskies were able to sink the last two free throws they needed to close the game out.
 
Up Next – The Golden Eagles will look to end their losing skid and draw even with the Huskies on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Lysaker Gymnasium.