BEMIDJI, Minn. - [box score] The Bemidji State men’s basketball team avenged its heart-breaking loss to Minn. State-Moorhead in last season’s Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament, downing the Dragons, 75-62, tonight at BSU Gymnasium in the NSIC Quarterfinals. BSU advances into the Tournament semifinals for the third consecutive season.

The victory gives Bemidji State the first 20-win season in school history.

Senior forward Charles Hanks, an All-America and NSIC Player of the Year candidate, led all scorers with a school tournament-record 26 points. It is the 15th 20-point effort for Hanks this season and 36th of his career. The 26 points breaks BSU’s previous single-game NSIC Tournament scoring record of 24 points, set by current BSU assistant coach Stan Johnson in last year’s semifinal loss to the Dragons.

Hanks tied an NSIC Tournament record with 10 free throws, equaling the record held by Southwest State’s Chad Koenen (vs Northern State, 2002) and tied again by MSU-Moorhead’s Deandre Buchanan tonight. His 13 free-throw attempts set another Tournament standard, breaking the previous record of 12 held by three other players.

Hanks added a game-high seven rebounds and had an assist, a block and a steal in 33 minutes.

Bemidji State led for nearly all of a slow-starting first half in which it was unable to get its high-octane offense untracked until the final four minutes. The Beavers hit just three of their first 10 field goal attempts, but a three-point field goal by Sherwin Johnson had the hosts up 12-8 with 13:44 to play. Johnson got off to a quick start, scoring 10 points in the game’s first nine minutes.

A Ben Aalto three-pointer with 11:47 to play helped draw Moorhead even at 12-12, and from there the teams played back-and-forth basketball for the next eight minutes. The Dragons eventually grabbed a one-point lead, their only lead of the game, at 4:15 on a pair of Corey Juhl free throws, but from that point the Beavers would begin to put the game away.

Moorhead kept BSU’s running game in check for the first 15 minutes, but foul trouble to three Dragon starters and fatigue opened the door for the Beaver fast break. BSU responded to Juhl’s free throws by tearing off a 15-2 run to close out the first half. James Roberson kicked off the run with a three-pointer with 4:02 left, and sophomore Kenneth Pointer hit a pair of field goals and was 2-for-2 from the line for six points during the burst. The run helped the Beavers take a 35-23 advantage into halftime.

The Dragons shaved BSU’s lead to seven points, 46-39, after Eddie Small failed to convert a conventional three-point play with 11:18 to play but could draw no closer. Johnson hit a three-pointer to push BSU’s lead back to 10 points with 10:50 to play, and the Beavers would trail by no fewer than eight points the rest of the way.

Adam Daley hit his first three-point field goal of the contest with 6:26 to play to push BSU’s lead back to 11 points. After a missed three-pointer by Moorhead’s Chris Anderson, James Roberson and Pointer canned back-to-back three-pointers to push BSU’s lead to 15, 66-51, with 3:54 to play.

Back-to-back three pointers from Moorhead’s CHris Anderson and Jeff Johnson cut the BSU lead to 10 with 2:51 to play, but the Beavers pushed the lead back to 16 and cruised to the 75-62 win.

Buchanan, MSU-Moorhead’s leading scorer coming in, was held scoreless until the 13:28 mark of the second half. He missed his first seven field goal attempts and finished 3-of-10 from the field. Buchanan tied the NSIC Tournament record with 10 free throws en route to a team-high 16 points.

With tonight’s victory, Bemidji State improves to 20-8 overall and remains 14-2 in the NSIC. MSU-Moorhead drops to 12-16 overall and remains 5-11 in the NSIC. The Dragons lose for the ninth time in 10 games to close the 2003-04 season. The Beavers advance to the NSIC Semifinals in St. Paul, Minn. They will tackle Minn.-Duluth in the NSIC Semifinals, March 6 at 2:00 p.m. from the Gangelhoff Center on the Concordia-St. Paul campus.

NOTES: Tonight’s attendance of 1,537 set a school record... Bemidji State swept all three games from MSU-Moorhead this season (74-62 and 77-57 wins in the regular season)... BSU improved to 10-0 against NSIC opposition at BSU Gymnasium this season and has won 13 consecutive home games against NSIC opposition... BSU improves to 18-0 this season when leading at halftime (35-25 tonight) and 10-0 when hitting more free throws (19-17 tonight)... BSU is 3-0 all-time in NSIC Quarterfinal games on its home court... BSU connected on 8 of 17 three pointers and has hit at least one three-pointer in 202 consecutive games and has 63 consecutive games with five or more threes... BSU split with semifinal opponent Minn.-Duluth during the regular season (lost 87-84 in Duluth, won 86-76 in Bemidji)... BSU improves to 27-9 when Charles Hanks scores 20 or more points... Sherwin Johnson and James Roberson added 16 and 14 points, respectively for the Beavers.