Golden Eagles Open Up Four-Game Road Trip this Weekend at CSP, Minnesota State


#TIDBITS

Golden Eagle men's basketball will head south for a pair of games with Concordia-St. Paul and Minnesota State. The Golden Eagles will look to end a nine-game losing streak and will look to knock off the Golden Bears, who have yet to win in the conference. Minnesota Crookston will look to reverse the trend against the Mavericks as well. The Mavericks have won the last four out of five in the series, but all those wins have come by less than six points and two out of the four Mavericks wins have come by one possession. The Golden Eagles and Mavericks have played some wild, exciting and tense games and this Saturday might be no different.

• GET JIGGY WITH IT. What a weekend it was for Ron Kirk, Jr. Kirk, Jr., otherwise known around Crookston as "Jiggy" ,arguably played the best two games of his Golden Eagle career. The freshman from Milwaukee, Wis., scored a career-high seven points on2-3 shooting from the field, as well as pulling down three rebounds, also a career-high. Kirk, Jr., followed that solid performance up with five points against Winona State, including burying his first career make from deep. Kirk, Jr., showed a ton of promise over the weekend and looks to have a bright future as a Golden Eagle.

• THE RISE OF WESTPHAL. Another player who stepped up this weekend was redshirt senior Zach Westphal. The West Fargo native scored nine points against Upper Iowa in his first start of the weekend, while also pulling down a season and career-high eight rebounds in 24 minutes. Westphal also scored 10 points against the Warriors on Saturday, which is the third time he's scored in double-digits this season. Westphal also played a career-high 31 minutes against Winona State.

• COMPETITIVE WITHOUT THE BALL. On Friday night against No. 19/23 Upper Iowa, Minnesota Crookston was really good on the defensive side of the ball. Against one of, if not the best defensive team in the conference, Minnesota Crookston held the Peacocks to make just three shots from deep on 21 attempts. The three makes from behind the arc was a season-low for UIU and the fewest an opponent has made this year against the Golden Eagles. Minnesota Crookston has one of the best three-point percentage defenses in the conference, currently ranking fifth in that category. They also held Joe Smoldt, who came into that game second on his team in scoring and top five in the conference to just one point, which was by far his lowest total of the season. The much improved defense for the Golden Eagles has kept them in almost every game this season.

• LID ON THE RIM. Speaking of outstanding defense, the Golden Eagles displayed one of their best efforts on that side of the ball in the second half. In the first half against the Warriors, Minnesota Crookston allowed 10 three's in the half, the most in any half given up this season, as well as allowing 44 first half points. In the second half, it was a lights out defense for the Golden Eagles, who didn't allow a make from deep and held the Warriors to under 35 percent shooting from the field in the final 20 minutes.
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• PAINT WITH A BRUSH. The Golden Eagles are capable of getting their offense from a variety of different places, including inside the painted area. In fact, that is the spot where the Golden Eagles shoot the most from, which could probably be said about a lot of teams in the nation. Almost 30 percent of the Golden Eagles shots have come in the paint this season, which is by far the highest percentage of shots for the Golden Eagles. The next highest percentage of Golden Eagle shots come within four feet of the rim, where they shoot a respectable 65.3 percent from that spot.

• SECOND CHANCE MAGIC. Zen Goodridge has been a valuable piece to the Golden Eagles, especially cleaning up misses; whether they are the opponents or his own teammates. The redshirt junior from the Sunshine State has an offensive rebound percentage of 16.2 percent in 212 minutes played, which ranks second in the entire NSIC. Goodridge has almost as many offensive rebounds as he does defensive rebounds. Goodridge will head into the weekend with 31 offensive rebounds and 36 defensive rebounds.

• MORE THAN A SHOOTER. In his Golden Eagle career, Leonard Dixon has been known as a knockdown shooter and maybe rightfully so, granted that he has made 69 shots from deep in 32 career Golden Eagle games. This season, Dixon has proven to be much more than just a lights out shooter. In his last four games, Dixon is averaging eight rebounds per game, which is the best four game stretch of his Golden Eagle career. He also leads the team in rebounds per game at just under seven. Dixon has been a valuable piece to the improvement on the defensive side of the ball for the Golden Eagles.

Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles
Head Coach: Dan Weisse
Record at UMC: 62-130 Season at UMC: 8th Season

Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears
Head Coach: Matt Fletcher
Record at CSP: 2-27 Season at CSP: 2nd Season

Minnesota State Mavericks
Head Coach: Matt Margenthaler
Record at MSU: 430-191 Season at MSU: 20th Season

NSIC Rankings

Scoring Offense: 16th
Scoring Defense: 8th
Scoring Margin: 14th
Free Throw Pct.: 16th
Field Goal Pct.: 15th
Field Goal Pct. Defense: 4th
3-Point Field Goal Pct.: 15th
3-Point Field Goal Pct. Defense: 5th
Rebounding Offense: 9th
Rebounding Defense: 15th
Rebounding Margin: 14th
Blocked Shots: 4th
Assists: 14th
Steals: 11th
Turnover Margin: 15th
Assist/Turnover Ratio: 16th
Offensive Rebounds: 10th
Defensive Rebounds: 7th

#OPPONENTOUTLOOK

CONCORDIA-ST.PAUL. Concordia-St. Paul will look for their first conference win in the Matt Fletcher era this weekend against Minnesota Crookston. One of Fletcher's two wins in his brief two-year Golden Bear career came against Minnesota Crookston to open up the brief 2020-21 season in Crookston. That win was a non-conference victory, so the Golden Bears will be looking to get off the schneid  in the conference for their Head Coach.

CHALLENGING PRESEASON. Concordia-St. Paul geared up for the regular season by scheduling two tough exhibition games earlier this year. CSP took on cross town foe, The University of Minnesota in Williams Arena, which was a 13-point win for the Golden Gophers. CSP then traveled to Ogden, Utah to take on Weber State, who is a perennial power in the Big Sky and is able to call Damian Lilliard, an NBA All-Star an alum. Two D-I opponents was a great way to gear up the Golden Bears for the regular season.

FRESHMEN GALORE. When people want to look for young teams, they should look no further than at the NSIC school located in St. Paul. The Golden Bears currently have a whopping 11 players that are freshman, either true or redshirt, which is one of the most in the NSIC. All three of the Golden Bears top  scorers are freshmen in Elijah Ormiston, Markus Skeete and a redshirt-freshman in Jacob Everson. Although the Golden Bears might not have had the best start to their season, they have to love the future they have put together for the coming years.

THRICE AS NICE FOR SLUICE. Another freshman that has made a huge impact on the Golden Bears has been Tulsa, Okla., native Ian Sluice. The Sooner State native is currently second on the team in three-point makes at 18 and leads the team in percentage from deep at just over 43 percent. Sluice has three games this season with three makes from deep, including a perfect 3-3 against Winona State and three makes from deep in the Golden Bears last game against St. Cloud State. Sluice is off to a great start in Minnesota.

MINNESOTA STATE. For the second Saturday in a row, the Golden Eagles will take on an NSIC power, this time on the road. The Mavericks are currently ranked 10th in the latest D2SIDA poll and are 10-4. The last time the Golden Eagles traveled to Mankato, they fell in a 93-90 thriller that came down to the final buzzer. It could be a fun one in the arena that is named after Glen Taylor.

Q AND A. Sophomore Quincy Anderson is one of the best scorers in the NSIC. The Oshkosh, Wis., native gets his 18.6 points per game in an efficient way, shooting 46 percent from the field and over 40 percent from deep. Anderson also has had two straight games with 10 makes from the field, both wins over Dakota State and Concordia-St. Paul. Anderson has scored in double-figures in all but one game and has scoring totals of 35, 30 and 26 this season.

DOUBLE TROUBLE.  Malik and Kyreese Willingham have teamed up this season to help the Mavericks to their 10-4 record on the season. Malik, the older of the two, is fourth on the team in scoring at 9.0 points per game and is second on the team with 18 three-point makes. Kyreese is having a nice freshman season as well, averaging 6.0 points per game and had a career-high 15 points against Wayne State College earlier this year.

NO HALT FOR HOLT. The Mavericks have an offense that can score the ball at will. They are led by a number of guys, but Ryland Holt is one player that they would love to get to return to form. The Illinois native won the NSIC Freshman of the year in 2019 after averaging 14.1 points per game and scored a career-high 25 points against Bemidji State. This season, Holt is averaging 5.5 points per game in under 16 minutes played. Holt is still a dangerous scorer and will have to be a guy that the Golden Eagles keep an eye on this Saturday.