Jan. 7, 2005
BEMIDJI, Minn. -- [box
score] The Bemidji State University men's basketball team
effectively used the long-ball to gain a 76-65 victory in
its 2004-05 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opening
game while extending its NSIC home winning streak to 12 games
Friday at the BSU Gymnasium.
BSU drained a season-high 14 three-point
field goals while shooting a season-best 60.9 percent from
behind the arc.
After playing to a 24-24 deadlock after 11:41
of play, BSU used a 9-3 run in the waning moments of the half,
sparked by a pair of treys by senior James Roberson (Chicago,
Ill.), to take an eight-point lead (39-31) into the intermission.
"From about the 12-minute mark until
the last four or five minutes of the game I think we played
really really well and our defense was great," said BSU
head coach Patrick Smith. "This [conference season] is
a long road and we played one of the top three or four teams
in the league tonight so to get a win against them off the
bat...I am very please."
The Beavers were 14-of-27 (.519) in the half
while knocking down 9-of-15 from beyond the three-point arc
(.600). CSP CSP started hot hitting four of its first five
shots, but would cool to an 11-of-28 (.393) shooting performance
in the first stanza.
Bemidji State opened the second half with
an 18-7 run putting CSP down by 19 (57-38) with 12:32 left
in regulation. The Beavers would extend that lead to 21 points
(65-44) 4:46 later on back-to-back threes by Roberson and
fellow senior Mike Fore (Bagley, Minn. But CSP would make
one more run at the win before conceding the 11-point loss
to the Beavers. Down 21 (72-51) with just over 6:00 minutes
left, the Golden Bears rattled off nine straight points to
climb to within 12 of their hosts (72-60), but time would
not be on their side as only 164 seconds remained.
The Beavers' red-hot shooting performance
was led by the tandem of Duane Fields (Los Angeles, Calif.)
and Roberson. Fields knocked down 6-of-11 from the floor hitting
four of his five shots from three-point land. Roberson was
6-of-10 shooting 4-for-6 from downtown.
The Beavers also gained ownership of the
glass pulling down 34 boards to CSP's 32. Seniors Amir Major
(Chicago, Ill.) and Ian Atkins (Detroit, Mich.) and junior
Spencer Carter (Chicago, ill.) combined for 18 of the Beavers
34 rebounds as each garnered six boards. Roberson led the
team with four assists inching ever closer to the all-time
assists record. He now has 223--just 10 shy of fourth place
in the record book.
Brian Jamros and Kyle Marxhausen each poured
in 17 points to lead the way for CSP. Justin Vandenberg pulled
down a game-high seven rebounds while R.J. Allen led all players
with five assists.
CSP drops to 9-4 overall and 0-1 in the NSIC
with the loss.
Evening their record at .500 (7-7) for the
first time since the team was 5-5 Dec. 4th, the win was the
10th consecutive time the Beavers have defeated Concordia-St.
Paul dating back to 2/18/00.
Bemidji State (7-7; 1-0 NSIC) will put its
winning streak on the line again Saturday (Jan. 8th) when
they welcome NSIC foe Winona State University (10-6; 1-0 NSIC)
to the BSU Gymnasium. The game is set for an 8:00 p.m. tip-off.
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