MANKATO, Minn. – Minnesota State men's basketball (12-8, 8-4 NSIC) dropped the last game of its four-game homestand against St. Cloud State (12-8, 8-4 NSIC) Saturday, 80-75. After a tough first half, the Mavericks stormed back to make it close, but couldn't quite pull of the victory. Caden Kirkman recorded his second double-double in a Maverick uniform, as the sophomore forward ended with 14 points and 10 rebounds. He shot 7-9 from the field in the game.
 
SCSU got on the board first with a three in its first possession. Kyreese Willingham made a three off a skip pass from Harrison Braudis to get the Mavericks on the board, but the Huskies made back-to-back layups to put the score at 9-3, which forced a timeout call from the home bench. Justin Eagins hit a step-back jumper to keep it a six-point game and found Will Opsahl for an open three to cut the deficit to three. Drew Daniel corralled a miss on offense and put it back up for a score. Nathan Bunkosky made consecutive three-pointers to give St. Cloud State a 21-10 lead with 12:16 remaining in the first half. Willingham made a nice driving layup to cut the Husky lead to seven. Luke Winkel made his second three of the afternoon to put SCSU up 26-14 with nine and a half minutes left in the half. Chase Bartlett scored a second-chance bucket, and Caden Kirkman made layup on a nice find from Eagins, but Lee Marks III hit his third shot of the game to give the Huskies a 14-point lead. Opsahl made a contested three to cut into the deficit and swished another through the net to cut the Husky lead to nine. The next time down, he found Kirkman for an easy layup inside, which made it a 33-26 game with 5:28 left in the opening period.
 
Kynan Philippe made back-to-back threes which put St. Cloud State back up by double-digits. He made another to put the away team up 44-26 with 3:12 in the half. Braudis banked in a running floater to cut the Husky lead to 16. Marks III made a tough layup inside to put SCSU up 19, but Eagins found Bartlett on the other end to push back against the Husky attack. Anish Ramlall nailed a three-pointer as the shot clock expired to give St. Cloud State a 52-33 lead headed into halftime.
 
MSU shot 51.9% from the field in the first half and made five threes in 12 attempts. The Mavericks struggled with turnovers in the first 20 minutes, as the team ended the half with seven turnovers, whereas the Huskies had none. Opsahl led the Mavericks with nine points in the first half. Eagins had five assists.
 
St. Cloud State shot 56.3% from the field and a whopping 57.1% from beyond the three-point line. Winkel led the team with 10 first-half points. Both Marks III and Philippe ended the half with nine points scored.
 
The Huskies started the second half with an and-one layup to go up 22. A corner three from Braudis bounced around the rim before falling through to get those three points back. Eagins and Kirkman ran a perfect pick-and-roll in response to a layup on the other end for Wyatt Hawks. Braudis knifed inside for a tough layup to make it a 57-40 game and Kirkman cut the deficit to 15 with one of his own. Ramlall ended a three-and-a-half-minute scoring drought for SCSU with a deep three. Eagins' second make of the game was a floater in the lane, then Kirkman scooped up a steal and threw down a two-handed dunk to cut the Husky lead to 16 with 14:14 left in regulation. Willingham muscled in an and-one jumper in the paint to put the score at 60-49.
 
Kirkman grabbed a missed three and put it back up to shrink the deficit to nine with 12:49, which forced the Huskies to call timeout. Winkel made a layup out of the break, but Opsahl hit his fourth three to keep it an eight-point game. Marks III made a shot in the paint to extend it back to a 10-point advantage for St. Cloud State. After Hawks made a layup that put the away team up 12, Eagins launched a three that fell through the net to keep it close. After the two teams traded free throws, Eagins hit a three and then converted a fastbreak layup after he stole the ball to make it a five-point game with 4:11 left in regulation.
 
Eagins made two of three from the line to cut the lead to four before Philippe made a layup to bump it back up to six. Willingham made one of two at the line the next time down, but the Mavericks recovered the ball, got it back to him, and Willingham spun inside for a layup to make it a three-point game. After Eagins made a couple of free throws to cut it to one, Winkel grabbed an offensive rebound and made a layup that rolled around the rim before it dropped to put the Huskies back up a full score. On the other end, Eagins found Kirkman on a nice pick-and-roll to make it a one-point game once again. The Mavericks turned the ball over with a chance to take a lead and the Huskies closed out the game at the charity stripe. St. Cloud State won 80-75.
 
The Mavericks shot 28-55 from the field (50.9% FG), 9-25 from three (36% 3P) and 10-14 from the free throw line (71.4% FT). The team ended with 28 rebounds, 12 assists, three steals and two blocked shots. MSU turned the ball over 11 times in the game.
 
Eagins led the team with 18 points and nine assists. He also had two steals on defense. Kirkman recorded his second double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 7-9 from the floor. Willingham scored 13 points and four boards. Opsahl tallied 12 points on 4-5 shooting from beyond the arc.
 
St. Cloud State ended up shooting 26-54 from the field (48.1% FG), 9-23 from deep (39.1% 3P) and 19-23 from the line (82.6% FT). The Huskies ended with 30 rebounds, 11 assists and eight steals. Winkel led all scorers with 23 points. Hawks ended with 13 and both Philippe and Marks III had 11.
 
The Mavericks play one game next week against Northern State (1-17, 0-12 NSIC). That contest takes place on Friday, January 24 at 5:30 p.m. in Aberdeen, S.D.