Men’s Basketball to begin four-game road trip at Minot State Jan. 29-30

Bemidji State University men’s basketball will play in the annual Beaver Bash Jan. 29-30 against Minot State University in Minot, N.D., to open a four-game road trip. BSU (2-6, 1-5 NSIC) aims to secure back-to-back wins this season and in the series against MiSU (4-4, 2-2 NSIC) with a 6 p.m. tip-off Friday and 2 p.m. tip-off Saturday at MSU Dome.

Bemidji State leads the all-time series against Minot State, 14-12. Only one of the last six meetings between BSU and MiSU has been decided by more than 10 points. Five BSU student-athletes scored in double figures during the first meeting of the 2019-20 season Jan. 24, 2020 before senior forward Derek Thompson scored a team-high 17 points in the season series finale Feb. 15, 2020. Thompson averaged 15.0 points per game last season against Minot State while junior forward Cody Landwehr scored 11.5 points per game on 66.7 percent shooting from the field.

The series began Dec. 28, 1967, a 86-82 win by Bemidji State at the Mayville Invitational in Mayville, N.D.

BSU snapped a six-game losing streak on the back-end of a weekend split at home against the University of Mary. The Beavers fell on Friday night, 76-70, before bouncing back with a 70-68 win on Saturday at BSU Gymnasium. The Beavers shot over 40.0 percent from the field in back-to-back games for the second time this season and hit a season-high 42.9 percent from beyond the arc in Friday’s loss. BSU held UMary to 40.0 percent shooting from the field in Saturday’s win, setting a season-low for an opponent this season, and gave away a season-low seven turnovers. Thompson averaged 15.0 points per game during the weekend split versus UMary. He shot 52.0 percent from the field (13-25) and recorded 17 points, seven rebounds, a career-high five assists, two blocks and one steal Friday.

Thompson leads BSU and ranks eighth in the NSIC with 17.0 points per game, and leads BSU and ranks ninth in the conference with 6.9 rebounds per game. He also ranks 11th in the NSIC in blocks per game and 17th in field goal percentage. Thompson moved up three spots to 14th all-time at BSU in scoring and now ranks ninth all-time in rebounds. He currently has 1,140 career points and 511 career rebounds with the Beavers.

Senior guard Nick Wagner scored 14.5 points per game versus UMary, including a season-high 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point range on Friday. He added four rebounds, four assists and one steal in the loss.

Senior guard Griffin Chase scored a season-high 17 points, one shy of his career-high, with a career-high five 3-pointers and seven rebounds in Friday’s loss. He finished the weekend shooting 52.9 percent from the field (9-17) and 50.0 percent from beyond the arc (7-14).

Four Beaver student-athletes recorded double-digit points in Saturday’s win, led by Thompson and senior guard Tyler Behrendt off the bench with 13. Behrendt set a new career-high in scoring on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from 3-point range.

Bemidji State remains one of the better teams in the nation in defensive rebounding, ranking 44th nationally and 5th in the NSIC with 27.0 boards per game on the defensive end.