Mar. 1, 2003

Winona, Minn. - With the 102-96 win over Winona State (11-16, 10-8 NSIC) tonight, Bemidji State (16-11, 12-6 NSIC) earns the third seed and the right to host the #6-seeded Warriors on Wednesday in the first round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament. Both clubs finished last season with the same ranking in the league standings.

Junior forward Charles Hanks (Chicago, Ill.) poured in a school record 44 points to lead all scorers and helped BSU to its sixth 100+-point effort on the season, which is the most in BSU history. His 16 field goals was one better than Chad Nelson’s 15 against Northern State (2/9/01) to break another BSU-best.

No one could blame the Beavers for not going to their hottest player in the early going. Hanks scored his team’s first 10 points and had 20 by halftime. However, the Warriors led for the better part of the half as they went up by 10 at 32-22 at the 7:42 mark. A free throw shot by Zach Malvik capped a 9-0 run. But, the guests battled back with a 26-14 run as they held WSU scoreless for 2:42. BSU led 48-46 at the half as it improves to 14-2 when having the advantage heading into the locker room.

Both clubs shot extremely well as BSU was 54 percent (15 of 28) while WSU was 55 percent (18 of 33) in the first 20 minutes. The difference was the 11 to 2 free throw advantage for the Beavers.

In the second half, Bemidji State took the lead for good after a lay-up by Hanks sparked a 12-6 run. WSU made the game interesting getting to within three points and holding the Beavers without a bucket for 2:57. From there, BSU responded with a 22-13 run as Hanks had eight points. With a 86-74 deficit, the Warriors crawled to within four points at 97-93 but the Beavers made their free throws down the stretch.

The Beavers got some great bench play from junior guard Jamal Clements (Parkhill, Colo.) and freshman guard Kenneth Pointer (Chicago, Ill.) as Clements recorded 16 points, one shy of his career-high, and Pointer chipped in a personal-best 14 with three three-pointers. Hanks was sent to the foul line 17 times, making 11 of them. He also had five rebounds and three blocks in 35 minutes. BSU finished at 53 percent (32 of 60) for the game, its 11 occasion of make at least half of its shots this season. Also, it was 11 of 27 (.407) from long distance and made a season-high 27 free throws in 41 attempts.

Winona State was led in scoring by the 23 points by David Zellmann, who had 15 in the second half, and 21 from Zach Malvik. Four other Warriors had at least eight points in the losing effort. For the game, WSU went 48 percent (34 of 71) overall, but just 13 of 25 (.520) from the charity stripe.

BSU is in familiar territory as it prepares to host the Warriors in the first round for the second consecutive season. The game is scheduled for Wednesday with a 7:00 p.m. tip-off at the BSU Gymnasium.

Notes: The BSU win is the third straight in the series with the Warriors...The old mark for most points by a Beaver was the 42 set by Mark Hronski against Wayne State (NE), Feb. 3, 1996...With four assists on the night, Royce Bryan moves past Teaser Sweetney (1989-93) into third-place on the school’s career assists list - he stands at 336 and is 11 away from the second spot...BSU’s five-game winning streak to end the season is reminiscent of 2001-02 when it won seven straight before falling to WSU in the season-finale...The 15 WSU three-pointers ties a BSU opponent season-high...Charles Hanks bounces back from a eight-point, 15-minute effort against Concordia-St. Paul last night as he fouled out and snapped his 16-game double-digit scoring streak...Adam Daley has hit at least one trey in 16 straight games after two tonight...The 23 BSU assists push its streak of 20 or more to 12 games, including six straight...Daley and Jeff Lorenson are neck-to-neck in the three-point attempts mark as Daley leads 150 to 144 as both players have already broke the school season record.