Men's Basketball | February 05, 2015

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Teams: Minot State vs Concordia St. Paul | Series: Tied at 1-1
Date: Friday, Feb. 6, 2015 | Time: 8 p.m. | Site: Gangelhoff Center
Teams: Minot State vs Minnesota State | Series: Minnesota State leads 2-0
Date: Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015 | Time: 6 p.m. | Site: Taylor Center

THIS WEEK: Minot State heads on their second to last road-trip of the season this weekend as they head into Minnesota for a pair of games. Friday, Feb. 6, the Beavers head to St. Paul, Minn. for a game with Concordia University. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. The following day, the Beavers head to Minnesota State for a 6 p.m. tip with the Mavericks.

RECORDS: Minot State comes into the week of Jan. 26 with an overall record of 11-11 and a NSIC record of 6-10 after a home weekend against Wayne State and Augustana. Concordia begins the week with an overall record of 14-7 and a 10-5 record in the Northern Sun. Minnesota State comes into the weekend sitting at 16-5 overall and holding a 14-4 record in the Northern Sun.

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. Joey James is currently in his first year as the head men's basketball coach at Concordia St. Paul. Prior to his appointment at Concordia, James served as the interim head coach at the University of South Dakota for one season and was previously an assistant at the school for 11 seasons. Matt Margenthaler is in his 13th season as the head coach of Minnesota State. In his time with the program, he's compiled a 284-115 overall record.

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: Minnesota State received 12 votes in the latest Coaches Poll released by the NCAA on Feb. 3 but the Mavericks did not crack the top 25. Neither Minot State nor Concordia St. Paul received 25 votes.

RECENT HISTORY: Minot State started off their weekend on a high note when they defeated Wayne State College 76-60, notably a school Coach Murken previously worked for. The Beavers got off to a good start as they headed into halftime with a 33-24 lead paced by Everett Robinson's (Sr., G, Grand Junction, Colo.) 10 points and Thomas Korf's (Sr., F, St. Cloud, Minn.) 9. Minot State stretched their lead even further in the second half in much part due to the play of Dominque McDonald (Jr., G, Raleigh, N.C.) who scored 16 points in the second half. The following day the Beavers had their hands full as No. 5 ranked Augustana College came to town. From the get-go, the Beavers looked overmatched as Augustana got out to an early 22-6 lead. The Vikings never trailed in the game on their way to an 87-58 win. Tyler Rudolph (Fr., F, Bismarck, N.D.) led the way for the Beavers with a career-high 19 points.

NOTING THE GOLDEN BEARS: Concordia St. Paul comes into this weekend having won six of their last seven games and their only loss in that stretch came to No. 7 ranked MSU Moorhead. This past weekend the Golden Bears began with MSU Moorhead where they fell 94-82 on the road. Despite having five different players score in double figures, Concordia had no answer for the Dragons' Jordan Riewer who dropped 37 points in the game. The following day the Golden Bears got back on track when they pulled out an overtime win at Northern State. Nuni Omat led the way for the Golden Bears as he scored a game-high 16 points.

NOTING THE MAVERICKS: Minnesota State dropped out of the top 25 in the latest 25 poll due to two close losses this past weekend to Northern State and MSU Moorhead. In the first game of the weekend, the Mavericks were on the road at Northern State where they fell to the Wolves 73-72. After leading by five at the half, the Wolves found themselves right back in the game early on in the half when they went on a 6-0 run to even the score at 40. A 3-pointer with four seconds left sunk the Mavericks late. The following day Minnesota State looked to bounce back but it was unable to do so when they traveled to highly ranked MSU Moorhead. Despite giving the Dragons a solid run, the Mavericks came up empty-handed at the end of the evening when they lost 76-72.

BIG TIME CAREER-HIGH: Minot State faced the No. 5 ranked Augustana Vikings this past Saturday and for many freshmen, playing a top ranked team can be intimidating. That wasn't the case for the Beavers' Tyler Rudolph (Fr., F, Bismarck, N.D.) as he scored a career-high 19 points in the team's loss. Rudolph has scored in double figures four times this season and with his 19 point performance he topped his previous career high by six points. He is currently averaging 6.1 ppg for the Beavers with the vast majority of his action coming off the bench.

Tyler Rudolph's top scoring games        
Opponent                  Date      Points    
St. Cloud State           1/24       11
U-Mary                       12/19     12
Minnesota Crookston   1/3        13
Augustana College       1/31      19

POINT GUARD MENTALITY: The Beavers' Dominque McDonald (Jr., G, Raleigh, N.C.) had arguably his best performance of the season last Friday against Wayne State when he scored 18 points, tied for his season-high, and dished out four assists in the MSU's win. McDonald got in the lane and drew contact as he went to the line 10 times in the game, making eight free throws. He's currently averaging 9.7 ppg for the Beavers.

FORMER SCHOOL DEFEAT: Minot State head coach Matt Murken picked up his second win against familiar program Wayne State this past weekend as the Beavers defeated WSC 76-60. Murken served as a graduate assistant and as a full-time assistant at Wayne State for six seasons. The Beavers fell to Wayne State in the 2013-14 season but Murken picked up a win against his former school in his first year at Minot State when the Beavers pulled out a 64-61 in the 2012-13 season.

HOME PLAYOFF GAME IN REACH: While Minot State currently sits two games out of fourth place in the NSIC North, a position that would give the team a home playoff game, the Beavers have six games remaining in the regular season, four of which are against North Division opponents. The final weekend of the season could be a critical one for Minot State as they travel to face St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth, the two teams directly in front of the Beavers in the North.

BY THE NUMBERS
9th: Minot State has the NSIC's 9th-best 3-point field goal percentage so far this season and they're defense of the 3 will be crucial against Minnesota State this weekend as the Mavericks have the second-best percentage in the league (42.0 percent).

13.7: Minot State's Everett Robinson (Sr., G, Grand Junction, Colo.) is the only member of the Beaver basketball team currently in the top 20 in scoring in the NSIC. Thomas Korf (Sr., F, St. Cloud, Minn.) is the next closest Beaver and he's 29th in the league in scoring.

19.5: Minnesota State's Marei Assem is one of the most efficient scorers in the NSIC this season as he's averaging 19.5 points per game while averaging just 26.2 minutes. Assem is also averaging a league-leading 8.7 rebounds per game.