BEMIDJI, Minn. (BSU Gymnasium) -- The Bemidji State men’s basketball team snapped a six game losing skid and improved its record to 8-16 on the season with a 81-72 win over the University of Minnesota, Crookston Saturday at the BSU Gymnasium. The win gave BSU a season sweep of the Golden Eagles.

Junior guard Seth Haake (Eden Prairie, Minn.) netted his fifth 20-point game of the season with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-10 from the field. Brady Fairbanks (So., G, Bena, Minn.) and Taylor Hall (Fr., C, Bena, Minn.) also were in double-figure point totals with 18 points each. Fairbanks grabbed a team-high seven rebounds while Bryce Tesdahl (Fr., G, Crosby, Minn.) dished out a game-high seven assists.

The Golden Eagles were paced by Akeem Cubie who poured in a game-high 22 points on 8-of-13 from the floor. He also led the team with nine rebounds.

The Beavers scored first and led the majority of the first five minutes of play, but a seven-point run by UMC, capped by a three from Bryce Cummings, gave the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game (12-10) with 14:21 to play in the half.

During the next ten minutes of play neither team wanted to take over the game as their were five tie scores and seven lead changes. With the score tied at 28-28 with 4:07 left before the half the Beavers decided to make a run as they pushed its lead to eight before the halftime horn (39-31) out scoring UMC 11-2 in the final four minutes of the half. BSU used solid free-throw shooting to aid in opening up the lead as the Beavers went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the final minutes of the first frame.

Minnesota, Crookston came out of the locker room to tie the game at 44-44 for the seventh time of the game on a Cubie three-pointer. The teams traded baskets for the next four minutes and with the scored tied for the tenth time at 52-52 UMC 7-2 run pushing its lead to five (59-54) its largest of the game off a Derik Hawkey free-throw with 9:03 left in the contest.

BSU whittled away at the Golden Eagles lead and eventually regained it for good on a coast-to-coast layup by Haake putting BSU up 65-64 with 5:04 left in the game. As the Beavers closed out the second half just like they did the first, outscoring the Golden Eagles 16-7 in the final four minutes of play to earn a 81-72 win over UMC.

The Beavers finished the game shooting 47.9-percent (23-48) from the field and 47.4-percent (9-19) from the three point arc while UMC was 45.1-percent (23-51) from the floor and 36.0-percent (9-25) from behind the three-point arc. BSU made nine more free-throws than UMC (26-17) while committing a season-low six turnovers while forcing the Golden Eagles into 10 turnovers.

The victory marked the eighth of the season for BSU which is the most in head coach Matt Bowen’s era. BSU six conference wins is also the most in Bowen’s three-years with BSU.

The win improves BSU’s overall record to 8-16 overall and 6-11 in the NSIC while the Golden Eagles fall to 4-20 on the season and 2-15 in the conference.

The Beavers will be back in action next weekend when they travel to Winona, Minn. to battle Winona State University from McCown Gymnasium on Saturday, Feb. 21. Game time is set for 8 p.m.

Bemidji State University, located in Bemidji, Minn., is an NCAA Division II institution and a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).

--beavers--