Minnesota State Cruises Past Fort Lewis in Opening Round of NCAA Tournament
Box Score
MARSHALL, Minn. - Jake Morrow scored a game-high 21 points to lead No. 4 seed Minnesota State, Mankato to a 87-61 victory over No. 5 Fort Lewis in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Central Region Tournament on Saturday night in Marshall.
MSU improves to 26-8, while FLC finishes its season with a 24-10 record.
"I thought our guys have been playing extremely hard the last couple weeks," said MSU head coach Matt Margenthaler. "The energy level was good on the defensive end, was how we needed to play. Our kids, they’ve really been a different team the last couple of weeks and I think that’s been big for us. We’ve been playing a lot more guys in shorter periods of time. Basically what we’ve done, and I’ve told (SMSU head coach Greg Stemen) this, if we can’t beat them, we steal from them and we’ve been playing the way Southwest has been playing. And that’s what’s changed our season. Tomorrow night we’ll see a great matchup in Marshall with a great Southwest Minnesota State team and what I think is a great Minnesota State team."
Morrow was one of two Mavericks in double figures; Jadee Jones had 19 points as well.
Mitch Gossen was a presence on the glass for MSU, snagging a team-high 10 boards.
Kirk Archibeque's 20 points and 12 rebounds led the Skyhawks. Deandre Lansdowne also had 15 points for FLC.
"For us it was disappointing, the depth of Mankato wore us down at the end of the first half," said FLC head coach Bob Hofman. "I thought we made an early run, I thought we could’ve cut it down to two or four but they shot the ball well and they totally outrebounded us. If you wanted to put one signature on the game it would be the offensive rebounds just killed us."
MSU was in control throughout, stretching a 10-point halftime lead to as much as a 26-point advantage late into the game.
The Mavericks were a stellar nine of 18 from behind the arc in the contest. FLC connected on just one three-pointer in the game.
