Golden Eagles Welcome in Mavericks, Golden Bears This Weekend


#TIDBITS

Golden Eagle men's basketball wrapped-up one of their longest conference road trips last weekend at Winona State and Upper Iowa. On Friday night in the five-point loss to Winona State, Minnesota Crookston played their best game of the year on the defensive side of the ball, allowing just 58 points. The Golden Eagles fell on Saturday to the Peacocks of Upper Iowa. Minnesota Crookston will look for an upset on Friday over Minnesota State and their third straight win in the series over Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday.

·   SHOWING SIGNS ON D. Although statistics show that Minnesota Crookston allows the most points per game in the NSIC, there might have been signs of things to come for the Golden Eagles on Friday. The Golden Eagles allowed just 58 points to the Warriors in the loss and allowed the home team to shoot just .048 percent from deep on 1-21 shooting from behind the arc. It was the lowest shooting percentage from deep by an opponent since 2016, when UMary shot .077 percent, which was done in 2009 by Wayne State College against the Golden Eagles, who also shot the same percentage on 1-13 from deep. It was an outstanding performance for the Golden Eagles on defense and the Golden Eagles will look to continue that momentum this weekend. The Golden Eagles will need to be solid on defense, as they welcome in Minnesota State on Friday, who is third in the NSIC in scoring at just over 81 points per game.

• PAY FOR ZAY. Although the Golden Eagles struggled offensively this past Saturday at Upper Iowa, one person who did not struggle was junior guard Xzavier Jones. The Milwaukee, Wis., native finished with a career-high 22 points on 9-16 shooting from the field. The nine makes from the field were a career-high. It was also the first time in Jones' career that he topped the 20-point barrier. Jones also continues to rebound well, finishing with 6.5 rebounds on the weekend, including seven in the loss to UIU.

·  MR. CONSISTENT. When Bryan Beamish was named head coach back in June, he was looking for players who were going to be consistent night in and night out. Enter sophomore guard Blaize Sagna. The London, England native has a stretch of nine straight games with more than 10 or more points and 12 out of his last 13 games. The last two players to do that throughout the season? Leonard Dixon a season ago and Harrison Cleary in 2019-20, when he scored double-figures in EVERY single game. Pretty good company for the first-year Golden Eagle.

·  NO SECOND CHANCE. De'Antray Hughes is another newcomer who has fit in seamlessly for the Golden Eagles this season. The junior has played in all 16 games this season, one of two Golden Eagles to do so and has started in eight of those games, all of which have come in the last month. Hughes collected his first double-double against UMary and is averaging 7.5 rebounds per game in his last three games. Minnesota Crookston will look to number 2 to continue his outstanding play this weekend against two solid opponents.

·  TALK ABOUT TURNOVER. The Golden Eagles have a number of players this season who are new; 10 in fact. That has been mentioned a number of times this season. The Golden Eagles are on a two game winning streak over the Golden Bears, dating back to 2021, a win at home and a win on the road. Minnesota Crookston has just one player on their current roster, Ron Kirk, Jr., who played in the game last season and none on this year's roster that was on the team in 2021. No matter who is on the team, the Golden Eagles will look for more of the same success against CSP this weekend at home, where they will play in Crookston with fans for the first time since Feb.9 of 2019.

·  STAY THE COURSE FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE. Minnesota Crookston will have a bright future with some of the pieces that they have on their current roster. One of those players is Omaha native Chandler Meeks. Meeks is one of three freshmen on the Golden Eagles and has had a nice season. Meeks has five games with over 10 points on the season, including three with 15, with two of those games coming in his last three games. Meeks has also made a number of eye-popping plays with his athleticism. If Meeks can continue to develop at a solid pace, he has an extremely bright future in the NSIC.

• CASH IN AT THE STRIPE. This past Friday at Winona State, it wasn't a necessarily pretty game for either team. Both teams combined for 28 turnovers and neither team shot the ball particularly well. One thing that kept the Golden Eagles in the game was at the charity stripe. The Golden Eagles made 15 free throw attempts (season-high) and it was huge to keep pace with a solid Winona State team. The Golden Eagles also got to the charity stripe 19 times as a team, which was tied for third most this season.


Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles
Head Coach: Bryan Beamish
Record at UMC: 1-15 Season at UMC: Eighth Season (First as Head Coach)


Minnesota State Mavericks
Head Coach: Matt Margenthaler
Record at MSU: 498-201 Season at MSU: 22nd Season


Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears
Head Coach: Matt Fletcher
Record at CSP: 7-51 Season at CSP: 3rd Season


Minnesota State @ Minnesota Crookston
Date: Friday, Jan. 13
Time: 7:30 P.M.
Place: Crookston, Minn. / Lysaker Gymnasium
Watch: https://nsicnetwork.com/goldeneaglesports/
Live Stats: https://goldeneaglesports.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Series Record: 18-1 in favor of the Mavericks
Last Meeting: 93-90 win for MSU in 2019
Officials: Jeff Mosca, Jordan Rheault, Paul Raj


Concordia-St. Paul @ Minnesota Crookston
Date: Sat. Jan. 14
Time: 5:30 P.M.
Place: Crookston, Minn. / Lysaker Gymnasium
Watch: https://nsicnetwork.com/goldeneaglesports/
Live Stats: https://goldeneaglesports.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Series Record: 23-9 in favor of CSP
Last Meeting: 77-72 win for the Golden Eagles in St. Paul
Officials: Mike Gullingsrud, Brayden Schildberger and Aaron Lenes


Weekly Snapshot

Minnesota Crookston
Projected Starters
Jr. G 4 Xzavier Jones (6-4, Milwaukee, Wis.) 12.7 PPG, 5.3 RPG
So. G 1 Blaize Sagna (6-3, London, England) 15.7 PPG, 5.1 RPG
R-Jr. G/F 11 Matthew Allman (6-6, London, England) 6.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG
Jr. G/F 24 Dezmond Washington (6-6, Morrilton, Ark.) 10.0 PPG, 5.4 RPG
R-So. F 10 Jordan Mitchell (6-8, Columbus, Ohio) 3.0 PPG, 3.5 RPG
Top Bench Players
Fr. G 5 Chandler Meeks (6-1, Omaha, Neb.) 7.1 PPG, 2.3 RPG
So. F 14 Pedro Rossi (6-8, Bahia Blanca, Argentina) 4.1 PPG, 1.9 RPG
R-Jr. F 2 De'Antray Hughes (6-7 New Orleans, La.) 4.4 PPG, 3.8 RPG
Sr. G 20 Rambo Badyal (6-3, Kelowna, British Columbia) 6.5 PPG, 1.6 RPG
Minnesota State
Projected Starters
Sr. G 0 Trevor Moore (6-5, Houston, Texas) 13.0 PGG, 4.3 RPG
So. G 1 Kyrese Willingham (6-5, Waseca, Minn.) 12.4 PPG, 5.5 RPG
Jr. G 2 Malik Willingham (6-3, Waseca, Minn.) 18.3 PPG, 5.2 RPG
So. F 21 Brady Williams (6-7, Eyota, Minn.) 9.0 PPG, 6.2 RPG
Sr. C 33 Kelby Kramer (7-0, Rock Springs, Wyo.) 5.2 PPG, 6.4 RPG
Top Bench Players
So. G 5 Harrison Braudis (6-1, Overland Park, Kan.) 12.3 PPG, 3.0 RPG
Fr. F 14 Malcolm Jones (6-8, Prior Lake, Minn.) 7.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG
So. F 21 Tyrell Stuttley (6-5, Onalaska, Wis.) 7.0 PPG, 3.1 RPG
So. F 3 Mason Muller (6-8, Petersburg, Ill.) 1.7 PPG, 2.8 RPG
Concordia-St. Paul
Projected Starters
So. G 1 Marcus Skeete (6-5, Aurora, Ill.) 12.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG
So. G 4 Jacob Everson (6-2, Menasha, Wis.) 6.9 PPG, 3.7 RPG
Jr. G 11 Antwan Kimmons (6-0, St. Paul, Minn.) 20.8 PPG, 4.5 RPG
Jr. F 24 Roy Grigsby (6-9, Superior, Colo.) 2.4 PPG, 2.6 RPG
Jr. G 35 Caden Hoffman (6-0, Scottsdale, Ariz.) 5.1 PPG, 1.3 RPG
Top Bench Players
So. F 23 Emad Elniel (6-7, Phoenix, Ariz.) 5.6 PPG, 2.8 RPG
So. G 3 Ian Sluice (6-3, Tulsa, Okla.) 4.9 PPG, 1.3 RPG
So. G 0 Sunday John (6-3, Omaha, Neb.) 3.3 PPG, 1.5 RPG
R-Fr. G 10 Sean Mathieu (6-2, New Orleans, La.) 3.8 PPG, 1.5 RPG
R-Fr. F 20 Cal Greene (6-7, Mahtomedi, Minn.) 3.4 PPG, 2.4 RPG


KNOW THE OPPONENTS

Minnesota State. Perennial NSIC power Minnesota State got off to a blazing start on the season, winning their first nine games, but have gone 3-4 since that hot start. MSU has won two out of their last three games and will head to Crookston for the first time since February of 2019, a five-point loss to the Golden Eagles. That loss four years ago was the first loss to Minnesota Crookston for the first time in the all-time series between the two programs.

BALANCE IT OUT. Any dangerous team is going to have a balanced offense. That is exactly what the Mavericks have. MSU has gotten off to a 12-4 start on the season by having four players averaging 12 or more points on the season, led by junior Malik Willingham and his 18.3 points per game. MSU has the third best scoring offense in the NSIC and a big part of that is spreading the wealth around on the offensive side of the ball.

HAM! The Mavericks lead scorer also has a brother who is pretty good in his own right. Kyrese Willingham, the younger brother of Malik has had an outstanding second season as a Maverick. The sophomore has doubled his scoring output from 6.3 points per game as a freshman to 12.4 points per game this season. The Waseca native also has three double-doubles on the season and is a 37 percent three point shooter on the season. Stopping the duo of brothers will be a tall task for the Golden Eagles this Friday night.

WILD CARD. Senior Kelby Kramer is somewhat of a wild card for the Mavericks. The senior from Rock Springs, Wyo., has had somewhat of a quiet season on the offensive end, averaging just 5.2 points per game on the season and he has scored 10 points just twice this season. However, the seven footer can still make a giant impact. Kramer is averaging 6.4 rebounds on the season and has six games with two or blocks on the season. The University of Montana transfer finished with 15 points, six rebounds and two blocks the last time these two teams met in 2020.

Concordia-St.Paul. The Golden Bears are a team with talent who has struggled to close out games this season. CSP is ten games below .500 at 3-13 on the season and has lost six games in a row. CSP has lost the last two games to Minnesota Crookston, so they will look to get back to their winning ways this weekend inside Lysaker Gymnasium.

BUILD THROUGH THE PORTAL. Say what you want about the transfer portal, but it can be a quality tool for programs in every sport to build a solid program. Concordia-St. Paul has seven transfers this season and a number of them play a huge role. Three of their top five scorers are transfers from Division I schools: Antwan Kimmons (Northern Iowa), Emad Elniel (Utah Tech) and Caden Hoffman (South Dakota). Roy Grigsby (Northern Colorado) and Cal Greene (Winona State) also are impact players for the Golden Bears. There will be a lot of talent on the floor on Saturday night.

KILLER INSTINCT. Speaking of Kimmons, he is an absolute dynamic scorer. Kimmons comes from an outstanding Northern Iowa program, led by Adam Jacobson, where he did make an impact. Kimmons has made a huge impact the first day he stepped on campus. The junior is third in the NSIC at 20.8 points per game and has done everything he can to win the last three games for his team, averaging 25.3 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game in his last three. Do the Golden Eagles have an answer for the former Panther? We will find out this weekend.

THRILLING FINISHES. When these two teams with the mantra 'Golden' before their mascot meet, there is a very good chance that it will be an exciting finish. Dating back to 2016, these two teams have met nine times, with six of those games decided by single digits and two of those games being decided by a basket. The last time these two teams met in Crookston, it was an overtime thriller, which the Golden Eagles prevailed, 84-80.