Men’s Basketball to face Dragons, Wolves Dec. 10-11 at BSU Gymnasium

Bemidji State hosts its first full Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference home weekend Dec. 10-11 with games against division rivals Minnesota State University Moorhead and Northern State University at BSU Gymnasium. The Beavers and Dragons open the weekend at 5:30 p.m. Friday followed by the Beavers and Wolves at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at BSU Gymnasium.

MSU Moorhead leads the all-time series against Bemidji State, 102-86. The Beavers and Dragons last met Jan. 16, 2021, an 83-61 win by MSUM in Moorhead. MSU Moorhead has won three straight in the series and five of the last six. Bemidji State and MSU Moorhead first met on Feb. 17, 1928, a 33-22 win by MSUM.

Northern State leads the all-time series against Bemidji State, 67-21. The Beavers and Wolves last met Jan. 9, 2021, a 100-63 win by Northern State in Bemidji. Northern State has won eight straight in the series, dating back to Dec. 18, 2017. Bemidji State and Northern State first met Dec. 18, 1959, a 78-48 win by BSU in Bemidji.

BSU split its conference-opening weekend of games, taking a loss of 87-64 to the University of Minnesota Duluth at home before taking a 97-84 win over St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minn. The Beavers moved to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in conference play while the Bulldogs improved to 8-0, 2-0 NSIC and the Huskies fell to 4-5, 1-2 NSIC.

The Beavers allowed their opponent to shoot above 50 percent for the first time this season against the Bulldogs. UMD jumped out to a 13-2 lead and extended the advantage to 20 points, 35-15, with 7:03 to play in the first half. BSU shot back to start the second half and pulled within seven points, 49-42, with 15:50 to go. Although the Beavers hit nearly half of its field goals to end the game, the Bulldogs also made the majority of their shots to preserve the win.

Sophomore forward John Sutherland led the team in scoring for a team-high third time this season, putting in 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Senior guard Travis Bianco was the only other Beaver to reach double-digit scoring at 10 points. BSU shot 42.6 percent from the field compared to 51.5 for UMD, and lost the rebound margin, 41-29.

BSU bounced back against SCSU with a dominant first half run, going on a streak of 43-18 over the final 13 minutes. The Beavers shot 17-of-23 from the field and 6-of-7 from beyond the arc over the first-half stretch and limited the Huskies to 5-of-18 shooting over the final 10 minutes of the half. BSU’s lead never dipped below 10 points after leading by as many as 19.

Senior forward Derek Thompson had his first break-out game of the season with a team-high 33 points, including 18 in the first half. Thompson recorded his first game with double-digit scoring this season and also led the team with eight rebounds. Senior guard Mohamed Kone followed Thompson in scoring with 16 points while senior guard Gare Ewefada scored 14 and senior guard Tyler Behrendt scored 11. BSU shot 60.9 percent from the field and sank a season-high 12 3-pointers on 70.6 percent shooting compared to 53.3 percent from the field for SCSU.