SIOUX FALLS — The first half of Sunday's NSIC tournament quarterfinal must have felt like a bad dream for the University of Sioux Falls Cougars. Everything that could've gone wrong for them did, and by the time they got to halftime — or woke up from the nightmare, if you will - they were trailing MSU-Moorhead by 29 points, having made just 5-of-33 shots in the opening 20 minutes.
The end result: A 76-56 loss at the Sanford Pentagon in which USF's brutal start left them with no real chance to win.
The Cougars looked like a completely different team in the second half — hitting back-to-back 3s to energize their fans, and as they continued to make shots and chip away at the lead the Cougar crowd came to life again and again. But while that noise and the energy it gave the Cougar players made it feel like USF was gaining momentum, they were simply too far away to really put any pressure on Moorhead. The Cougars got the lead down to 18 with just under nine minutes to play, but that needed to be just the start of their comeback, and it turned out to be the end of it. The Dragons had the lead back to 24 with five minutes left, at which point USF just didn't have enough time.
Jacob Beeninga had 24 points to lead the Dragons (24-6), who will face Bemidji State in the late semifinal on 7:30 on Monday.
Dane Zimmer had 13 points and 15 rebounds while Lorenzo McGhee had 12 points and Gavin Baumgartner added 11 points and five assists.
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MSU shot 45 percent from the floor in the game, including 55 percent in the first half. The Cougars shot a much-improved 44 percent in the second half, but they never got it going from outside, finishing 5-of-33 from outside the arc - the same 15 percent they shot overall in the first half.
Matt Cartwright, the former O'Gorman star who began his career at Augustana, returned to the lineup after missing two games with a serious elbow injury, and the senior gutted out 32 minutes for a team-high 23 points. But it took him 23 shots to do it, as it just wasn't a good night for the Cougar shooters. Much of that was the Dragons' defense, sure. They locked down the lane and forced USF to stay on the perimeter for long stretches. But the Cougars missed enough open looks for them to wonder how different the game might have been if just a few of them had gone down in the first half.
Chase Grinde had seven points and five rebounds in his last game as a Cougar while Jack Thompson was just 3-of-11 and 0-for-5 from deep for six points.
The Cougars, who shared the NSIC South Division title in the regular season, finish the year 19-11.
NSIC TOURNAMENT
Men
Saturday
Bemidji State 79, Wayne State 71
Northern State 65, Minot State 60
Sunday
Minnesota Duluth 72, Upper Iowa 61
MSU-Moorhead 76, USF 56
Semifinals
Monday
Minnesota Duluth vs. Northern State, 4:30 p.m.
Bemidji State vs. MSU-Moorhead, 7 p.m.
Championship
Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Women
Saturday
Minnesota Duluth 82, Concordia-St. Paul 55
MSU-Mankato 81, Mary 66
Sunday
Augustana 78, Northern State 67
SMSU 76, St. Cloud State 68
Semifinals
Monday
Augustana vs. Minnesota Duluth, 11 a.m.
SMSU vs. MSU-Mankato, 1:30 p.m.
Championship
Tuesday, 4 p.m.
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