Men's Basketball | February 23, 2015

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Teams: Minot State at Upper Iowa | Series: Upper Iowa leads 5-0
Date: Friday, Feb. 25, 2015 | Time: 7:10 p.m. | Site: Dorman Gymnasium

THIS WEEK: Minot State travels to Upper Iowa this Wednesday, Feb. 25 for the second time in the 2014-15 season, this time for the first round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament. The game is set for a 7:10 p.m. tip-off in Fayette, Iowa. Wednesday's winner will advance to the second round of the NSIC Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D. and play the winner of Minnesota State Moorhead and Wayne State on Sunday, March 1 at noon.

RECORDS: Minot State ended the regular season with an overall record of 14-14 and a NSIC record of 9-13 after a weekend road-trip against St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth. Upper Iowa ended its season with an overall record of 16-12 and a conference record of 12-10.

COACHES CORNER: Minot State's Matt Murken is in his third season as head coach of the Beavers. He's compiled a 22-37 record during his first two seasons with Minot State and is 67-45 throughout his five year head coaching career. In his first season with the MSU, Murken increased the Beavers' win total by six from the previous year including the program's first ever win against a NCAA Division II ranked opponent (68-62, No. 19 St. Cloud State, Jan. 5, 2012). Before his time at Minot State, Murken was the head coach at the University of Jamestown where he compiled and impressive 46-16 overall record and was named Dakota Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2012. Upper Iowa is led by second year head coach Brooks McKowen. In McKowen's first year with the Peacocks, he took them to the NCAA Division II postseason Central Region tournament. The team recorded the most wins in school history since moving to Division II.

FOLLOW THE BEAVERS: The game is broadcast locally on KCJB 910-AM with Scott Kittell calling the play-by-play. Live audio can be accessed online at kcjb.com. MSU provides live video and live stats as well as links to the live audio at msubeavers.com. Minot State Athletics also is active on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube with all feeds accessible at msubeavers.com/stayconnected.

RANKINGS: Neither Minot State nor Upper Iowa ended the season in the latest top 25 poll released by the NCAA. Both schools did not receive votes.

NOTING THE BEAVERS: Minot State traveled to Minnesota this past weekend for its final two games of the regular season against St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth with an outside chance of coming away with a home playoff game for the conference tournament. The Beavers needed to win both games and have Minnesota Duluth lose to U-Mary on Friday. Unfortunately for the Beavers, the hope for a home game became obsolete after a 93-85 loss to SCSU on Friday evening. Minot State got off to a slow start early as they trailed 47-33 at the half and the team could never work its way all the way back. Everett Robinson (Sr., G, Grand Junction, Colo.) led the way with a double-double for the Beavers as he dropped 17 points and collected 12 boards. The following night the Beavers hoped to gain some momentum heading into the conference tournament and it looked as if Minot State would do so as they led the majority of the second half, but a missed jumper at the buzzer sent the game to overtime where the Bulldogs eventually prevailed 83-80.

NOTING THE PEACOCKS: Upper Iowa played two competitive games this past weekend at home beginning with Augustana College Friday night. After the Vikings got out to a 48-40 lead at the end of the first half, Upper Iowa continued to hanging around and cut into the lead the entire second half but the Peacocks never got closer than two points. After cutting the lead to two with just over one-minute left, the Peacocks had the chance to tie but a missed dunk by Jimmy Roth solidified the 97-92 win for Augustana as they didn't miss a free throw in the final minute of play. The following night Upper Iowa got back on the winning side of things as they defeated Wayne State 92-86. After somewhat of a hangover in the first half from the previous night that enabled the Wildcats to jump out to a 44-38 halftime lead, the Peacocks outscored Wayne by 12 in the second half much in part due to the 19 points of Luke Lenhart.

REGULAR SEASON MATCH-UP: The regular season match-up between Minot State and Upper Iowa was a highly competitive game that found itself ending after double-overtime in favor of the Peacocks. After trailing by just three points at the end of the half, the Beavers fought back and tied the game sending it to overtime but ultimately it wasn't enough. Five different players scored in double figures for the Beavers while the Peacocks were led by Grant Long's 31 points.

LATE SEASON STAR: After a career night of 22 points and 10 rebounds two weekends ago, Tyler Rudolph (Fr., F, Bismarck, N.D.) came just short of his second straight double-double of the season as he once again scored 22 points but recorded just nine rebounds in the Beavers' loss to St. Cloud State. Rudolph posted double figures again Saturday night, his fourth straight game in double figures, as he scored 11 and brought down seven rebounds. He's averaging 16.3 ppg in his last four games and has raised his overall scoring average to 7.9 ppg in that stretch.

CASE FOR ALL-CONFERENCE: Minot State's Everett Robinson (Sr., G, Grand Junction, Colo.) combined to score 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting and brought down 24 rebounds over the weekend on his way to two more double-doubles. Robinson is shooting an impressive 57.2 percent from the field this season and has tallied seven double-doubles altogether. His 13.3 ppg is the highest scoring average on the team and he also leads the team in rebounding with 7.5 rpg.

LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR: Minot State improve tremendously from last season as the Beavers ended the 2013-14 campaign with an overall record of 8-19 and a conference record of 4-18. The Beavers more than double their conference wins ending this year's regular season with nine conference wins. Overall record-wise, this is the best season the men's basketball team has had since the 2009-10 season when the team finished 18-11 as an NAIA school.

HELLO PELO: Michael Pelo (Jr., G, Charleston, Utah) had one of his best shooting weekends of the season last weekend as he shot 9-for-17 from behind the three point line and scored a combined 30 points in the Beaver losses. Pelo is averaging 8.7 ppg for the Beavers this season and shooting 42.7 percent from behind the arc.

BY THE NUMBERS
1st: Minot State is looking to advance to the second round of the NSIC tournament for the first time since joining the NSIC and NCAA Division II back in 2012.

2-of-3: The Beavers and the Peacocks have met in the NSIC tournament two out of the last three seasons with both first round games being played in Fayette, Iowa. Minot State fell to Upper Iowa 86-72 back in the 2012-13 season.

690: Minot State will travel 690 miles to Fayette, Iowa for the first round game against Upper Iowa. Upper Iowa is the furthest campus away from Minot State in the NSIC.