By Carl Goenner / KVSC Sports Writer

The St Cloud State Men’s Basketball team faced off against two very talented teams last
weekend. First, were the Minnesota State Moorhead Dragons on December 31st, 2022 that
started with Luke Taylor getting St. Cloud State out to an early 5-0 lead. The Huskies lead was
short lived, however, as the Dragons kept it close until the end of the half when they would pull
away to a 31-23 lead.

Ryan Bagley kicked the second half off draining a three-pointer for the Huskies but the team couldn’t capitalize on that momentum and the Dragons were able to pull away. With just under seven minutes remaining, St. Cloud cut the lead down to three, but their defense began to crumble and Gavin Baumgartner hit two straight three-pointers to widen the gap again for the dragons and help them to an 86-72 victory of the Huskies.

The Huskies then came up against the Northern State Wolves on January 1st, 2023. St. Cloud
won the tip-off and got the first two points but just couldn’t get their feet under them as Jackson
Moni of Northern State used his height advantage to put the Wolves in the driver seat. With the
help of Sam Masten, Northern State would take a 45-37 lead into halftime.

The Huskies just could slow down the Wolves as their point buffer in the second half stayed at eight points and they successfully kept it up. Jordan Belka then hit a couple of three pointers in the 4th quarter and would finish with 15 points helping Northern State to a 83-65 win over St. Cloud State.