Jan. 11, 2003


Duluth, Minn. - The Bulldogs from Minnesota-Duluth (6-8, 2-3) used a 15-0 run that spanned the final five minutes of the first half and the opening minute of the second half and went on for a 86-69 victory over Bemidji State (6-8, 2-3) tonight in NSIC action.

The Beavers fell on some hard times in the past two days as senior center Ben Caron (Bemidji, Minn.) injured his knee in practice yesterday and will be out for the remainder of the season. Also, senior center Chris Wallin (Mesa, Ariz.) has a stress fracture in his foot and played limited minutes (11) in tonight’s contest. Without the inside presence of BSU’s tallest players, head coach Jeff Guiot had to go with four guards in the line-up often.

“We are going to have to learn how to play with four guards,” said Guiot. “It is an adjustment that we are going to have to make without having those two key players.”

After the Beavers ended a 15-0 Bulldog spurt at 18:43 of the second with one of senior guard Jeff Lorenson’s (Cannon Falls, Minn.) career-high five three-pointers, they went on a 17-11 run to close the gap to three at 50-47. That was as close as BSU would get as Minnesota-Duluth responded with a 10-2 spurt to go up 60-49.

Senior guard Royce Bryan (Haviland, Kan.), who sat out the last four games with an injured hand, knocked down a tri-fecta with 1:55 remaining to get Bemidji State within eight at 75-67. From there, the Bulldogs hit all 10 of its free throw attempts, including six by Jason Schneeweis, to score 11 of the game’s final 13 points.

The first half was quite sloppy with a combined 29 turnovers, 17 of which came from UM-D. The Bulldogs had leads of five and six, the last at 24-18 but the Beavers countered with a 12-0 run to take their largest lead of the contest at 30-24 with 4:30 to go in the half. BSU could not connect on its final five shots of the half as Minnesota-Duluth scored 11 straight to lead 35-30 at the half.

For the game, Minnesota-Duluth shot 55 percent (27 of 49) from the field, including 24 of 33 from the free throw line. BSU was just 35 percent (24 of 68) from the floor and hoisted up a school and league record 43 three-pointers, hitting on 13 of them. The Beavers were only able to manage 29 rebounds compared to the 47 by UM-D and BSU shot just eight of 15 from the charity stripe.

Lorenson hit for a career-high 21 points on six of 14 shooting as he added four rebounds and four assists. Senior guard Stan Johnson (Salt Lake City, Utah) poured in 19 points on seven of 12 shooting while junior forward Charles Hanks (Chicago, Ill.) notched his fifth-straight 10+ scoring effort with 10 points and he grabbed a team-high six rebounds.

Schneeweis led the Bulldogs with a personal-best 36 points on 11 of 14 shooting. He added 16 rebounds and went 14-for-17 from the foul line. Sean Seaman added 14 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.

“ The kids played real hard,” said Guiot. “I can not fault them for their effort. We did not shoot the ball extremely well but the kids gave all they could tonight.”

Bemidji State stays on the road and travels to Minnesota-Morris and Northern State next Friday and Saturday for two conference affairs. Both contests begin at 7:30 p.m.


Notes: The old NSIC record was 39 three-point attempts in a single game - BSU has now hit for 42 vs. South Dakota State (11/30/02) and 40 vs. UM-Crookston (1/3/03) this season...The old school record was 33 as it was done twice last season...The 16-point margin of victory is the largest by either team in the overall series in a 12-game stretch...In leading the team with his six rebounds, Charles Hanks has gone six games in accomplishing that feat...The 12 three-point attempts by Jeff Lorenson and 10 by Royce Bryan are both career-highs...With 28 team rebounds, this is the fourth occasion that BSU has been under 30 rebounds this season - BSU is 0-4 in those contests...The Beavers drop to 0-6 when trailing at the half.