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Poor second halves hurt men
It doesn't take much for anyone listening to the radio or in attendance to realize that playing two decent first halves won't put a 'W' in the standings if the second half in both games falls flat.
Unfortunately for the Huskies, that's just what happened in games against the University of Nebraska-Omaha and University of South Dakota this weekend. Two well-played first halves followed by two poorly played second halves aided by less than stellar shooting and turnovers helped contribute to snapping the team's three-game winning streak. The Huskies dropped a 78-69 match to the Mavericks Friday night before heading north and dropping a 97-79 decision to the Coyotes of South Dakota.
"Unfortunately, we hit some scoring droughts and both teams took advantage of that," senior guard Alex Carlson said. "You can't do that in this league and expect to win when that happens."
The Huskies, usually aided by good shooting and good ball control, lost both attributes with about seven and a half minutes remaining in the second half against UNO.
The Mavericks jumped all over the miscues and turned a halftime deficit of six into a nine-point win. In the second stanza, SCSU did not score a point in the first six minutes and did not have a field goal in the first seven and a half minutes and found themselves trailing by seven with about 12 minutes left to play.
"We came out and couldn't hit any shots and it hurt us," junior guard Nate Miller said. "We were trying to establish ourselves in the half and trying to get something going, but when that happens, there's not much you can do."
While the Huskies' play went as cold as ice, the Mavericks began to heat up, making six of their first nine shots to take the lead and never looked back. SCSU burned three time-outs in the first six and half minutes of the second half to try to slow bleeding, but UNO led by 10 with a little over two minutes remaining in regulation.
SCSU tried to make the game closer as the game neared the final buzzer, but fell short of its goal. Litchfield native Carlson hit a three-pointer, made two free throws and a field goal in a 10-4 run for the Huskies to help cut the Mavericks' lead to four points with under a minute to play.
"We're not going to give up no matter how many points we're down by," Carlson said. "We always feel like we can come back no matter how far we're down. Unfortunately, they made a few free throws and we weren't able to get through that."
UNO, led by unusually good free throw shooting, paved the way for the North Central Conference win. The Mavs were 26-of-33, good enough for 78.8 percent. The team only missed three of its shots in the last few minutes of regulation. UNO went into the game shooting a less than stellar 68.9 percent from the stripe.
"We weren't really surprised by the way they were shooting, all the teams in the conference with the players they have all have the ability to that," Miller said. "It's just unfortunate they did it against us."
Miller led the Huskies and all scorers with 23 points, including a two-of-six performance from three-point land. Junior forward Steve Trull led with 11 rebounds and chipped in nine points. Junior center Joe Evert contributed 10 points for SCSU.
Saturday night's game was much the same story, only a near 60-point performance in the second half by USD spelled disaster for the Huskies.
"With the firepower that (South Dakota) has, it's hard once your down a lot to them," Carlson said. "When you get down that much, you start to gamble a little bit more on defense and they get open looks. But I think we did a good job digging in and coming back towards the end."
The Huskies only trailed by nine at the half, but an 83 percent shooting performance from the floor in the second half lifted the Coyotes past the Huskies to the NCC win. USD was 20-of-24 from the floor after the break, and shot 61 percent from the floor in the contest. Meanwhile, the Huskies shot a dismal 34 percent from the field.
The Huskies missed 11 straight shots in a four-minute stretch of the final half and was upended 97-79 by USD at the DakotaDome in Vermillion, SD. It was the second straight win for the Coyotes (2-4 in the NCC, 12-6 overall) and the second straight loss for the Huskies, the defending NCC champions (3-3 NCC, 13-6 overall).
USD came into the weekend shooting just 21.1 percent from beyond the arch, and were 6-for-9 shooting three pointers in the second half against the Huskies. This after shooting 44.4 percent from downtown in a nine-point win over Minnesota State-Mankato Friday night.
Coyote forward Tommie King proved why he was named an All-NCC selection last season and a preseason All-American pick this year. King scored 32 points for the second straight game as he went 14-for-17 from the field. He also contributed three rebounds and three assists in 37 minutes of play.
"He's a tremendous athlete ... He's obviously very good and he's so athletic," Carlson said. "You start to bring guys to cover him and with the team they have there's not one guy on that team you can leave to try and stop him."
The Huskies made a good run to make the score decent in the remaining minutes with some good contributions from the bench. The Huskies moved to full-court pressure and were able to cut the Coyotes' lead to 11 points with two minutes left after a three-pointer by Miller.
After Miller's three-pointer, first-year forward Zac Campbell, who had 13 points and five rebounds, stole the ball. However, Miller missed a three-pointer and Coyotes senior forward Derek Paben got the rebound. The Huskies would go scoreless for the remainder of the game. Miller finished with 17 points and Carlson added 21.
"Two losses always hurt the team, but I definitely think we can find some positives out of this," Miller said. "I think we can learn from this, partly because we need to because the season is coming to a close and we need to pick up wins."
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