Jan. 25, 2003


Bemidji, Minn. - At the BSU Gymnasium, a three-pointer by junior guard Adam Daley thwarted Concordia-St. Paul’s (2-16, 2-7) comeback as Bemidji State (10-8, 6-3) went up by five at 1:28 left. The Beavers went on to hit seven of eight free throws thereafter to seal their fourth straight NSIC victory in the 94-84 affair.

“ Daley’s shot was huge,” said head coach Jeff Guiot. “I told the guys you have to have courage to take the shot. You can not be afraid to lose”

Six different players scored for BSU in the game’s 18-2 opening run. Meanwhile, C-SP turned the ball over five times during that stretch. From there, the lead would increase to 21 for the Beavers after senior guard Royce Bryan (Haviland, Kan.) capped a 19-12 run. But the Golden Bears countered by notching 26 of the half’s final 39 points to go into intermission down by only eight at 59-51.

Junior forward Charles Hanks (Chicago, Ill.) tied for game-high honors with 16 points on seven of nine shooting. The Beavers shot an amazing 66 percent from the field with C-SP going a not-too-shabby 56 percent. The down-fall for Concordia-St. Paul was the 12 turnovers.

The Golden Bears went on a 7-2 run to deflate the BSU lead to three at 61-58 out of halftime. Thanks to a tri-fecta by Daley, the Beavers padded its lead once again back up to 12 at 76-64 with 11:37 remaining. C-SP would not lay down as it slowly crept back into play with a 18-8 spurt leading up to Daley’s heroics.

BSU finished for the second straight night over 50 percent as it did just that by going 35 of 70. It was 12 of 31 from behind the arc to push its streak of 10+ three-pointers to seven straight games. C-SP went 28 of 58 (.483) from the floor overall as both teams did well from the charity stripe with the visitors going 13 of 14. BSU was 12 of 14 from that area. The Golden Bears tallied 24 turnovers to BSU’s 15.

Hanks finished with a season-high 26 points as he added six rebounds and three assists. Senior guard Stan Johnson (Salt Lake City, Utah) grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds to go along with his 15 points for his first career double-double in the green and white. Daley hit for 12 points while senior guard Jeff Lorenson(Cannon Falls, Minn.) chipped in 11 points.

Dan Torrez scorched the nylon for 24 points with his six three-pointers. Thomas Blunt went for 22 and Ray Dawson added 11 off the bench.

“We played great defense in the last three minutes,” said Guiot. “They (Concordia-St. Paul) played with a lot of heart. But, I will take all the 10-point wins that I can get with last night and now tonight.”

Next up for BSU will be the Mustangs from Southwest State next Friday. Game-time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the BSU Gymnasium.


Notes: The last six contests in the overall series have gone in favor of the Beavers and lead 6-1 since the two teams began meeting...Stan Johnson nearly missed a triple-double as he set a personal-best of eight assists...Charles Hanks has gone for double-digits in points in the last nine games and hit for 20 or more in four of those contests - he has averaged 18.7 in that stretch...The Beavers move their record to a perfect 6-0 mark when dishing out more than 20 assists on the season as they had 21 tonight...In the last seven games and 10 of 11, BSU has forced its opponents into more turnovers...Bemidji State holds its 14th opponent to shoot under 50 percent from the floor as C-SP went 28 of 58 (.483).