by Dax Larson
Issue date: 12/7/06 Section: Mens Sports
Good things come in threes. At least for the Minnesota State men's basketball team Tuesday night in a 93-77 win over Bethany Lutheran College. The Mavericks hit four three-pointers in the first five minutes of play to get to a fast double digit lead. Four different Mavericks hit a three in the run, even Curt Greenly (6-7, 220 lbs) hit a three. Sophomore Jake Morrow hit the first three and finished with four on his way to 18 points on the night.
"We had some set plays for him, but they were for him to drive," said head men's basketball coach Matt Margenthaler. "He knocked down some big shots. We would've been in trouble without him."
"In warm-ups I wasn't hitting many of my shots," Morrow said. "But when I hit my first shot I knew it was going to be a good shooting night."
For the third consecutive Tuesday night game MSU took a team for granted and didn't play to their full potential. Two weeks ago the Mavericks traveled to Concordia-St. Paul and suffered their first, and only, loss of the season. Last week Upper Iowa visited the Taylor Center and made MSU work for a win. Tuesday Bethany Lutheran College traveled across town to battle MSU. Margenthaler took the blame for Tuesday's lack of energy because he scheduled the game so close to the Colorado trip last weekend.
"It's tough night to play," Margenthaler said. "We got back from Colorado at 9 p.m. on Sunday. These guys are tired."
Although the Mavericks got out to an early lead the BLC supporters were significantly louder than the MSU fans and helped the Vikings stay in the game. The MSU crowd sat for most of the game, while the boisterous BLC crowd would start a DE-fence chant when they were down by 10.
"Bethany did a great job getting their students out here," Margenthaler said.
At halftime the Mavericks had a 10 point lead, but BLC chipped away at the Mavericks in the second half and at the nine minute mark the Vikings cut the lead to two. BLC kept the game close for a few more minutes until the Mavericks caught fire from behind the three-point line and got back to a comfortable lead. Sophomore Jake Morrow hit two threes in consecutive possessions and senior Tony Thompson hit a third on the following possession. To keep with the trend of the second half the Vikings didn't quit and got the game back to a six point deficit before Margenthaler took a timeout with five minutes to play.
"When we get up by a certain amount we seem to let up," Morrow said. "We back down on defense and let them back in the game. That shouldn't be the case."
It took 35 minutes, but the Mavericks finally started to play like a team with a purpose. The Mavericks started to create turnovers in the final five minutes, as the Vikings started to play with some desperation. MSU converted on its chances down the stretch to finally quiet the BLC crowd.
• The Mavericks jumped to No. 9 from 15th in the National Association of Basketball Coaches poll released Tuesday. The ranking is MSU's highest since Feb. 8, 2005 and marks the ninth time the Mavs have cracked the NABC top-10 under Margenthaler.
• With less than a minute to go, Thomason came up limping after taking an off-balanced shot with the shot clock running down. Margenthaler said it was a pretty serious ankle sprain and he could be out this weekend. Thomason had 16 points and six assists.
Dax Larson is a Reporter staff writer
