Beavers rebound over Mayville, earns split on road trip

MAYVILLE, N.D. – Minot State University overcame a short bench and a Mayville State second-half comeback as the No. 11 Beavers rebounded from a Friday loss with a 103-96 win Saturday in Dakota Athletic Conference men’s basketball at the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse.

Minot State (2-2 DAC, 12-5 overall) only dressed seven players but finished with five in double figures. Nick Turner (G, Jr., Los Angeles) and Jason West (G, Jr., Lompoc, Calif.) keyed a second-half run that gave MSU an 80-71 lead. West scored six straight points during the run and finished with 22 points. Turner hit a layup on a feed from West to give the Beavers a 60-59 lead they didn’t relinquish with just over 14 minutes to play and led the Beavers with 28 points.

The Comets (0-3 DAC, 8-9 overall) made a run at the start of the second half, turning a 44-44 halftime tie into a 57-50 lead on a 3-pointer from Anton Coleman with 16 minutes to play. Coleman had the hot hand for Mayville with 28 points.

The Beavers pushed the lead to 92-80 with a three-point play by Shaun Johnson (C, Sr., East Orange, N.J.) on a solid feed by Neal Packineau (G, Jr., Parshall, N.D.) with just over three minutes to go. But Minot struggled to put the game away from the free-throw line, hitting just 1of 6 over a two minute stretch allowing Mayville cut the lead to just three with 44.4 seconds to go. MSU, however, hit 5 of 6 to fend off a Mayville comeback.

Minot State shot 56 percent from the floor, going 37 for 66 and went over the century mark for the fourth time this season and second time in three games.

Along with Coleman, Mayville have four others in double figures. Micah Berge pitched in with 20 points for the Comets, hitting six 3-pointers.

Mister Carney (G, Sr., Tulsa, Okla.) and Johnson scored 13 apiece for the Beavers.  Marcus Balinton (F, Jr., San Francisco, Calif.) finished with 12 and Packineau added 10. Kenneth McCoy (F, Sr., Stuttgart, Ark.) pulled down 10 rebounds for the Beavers to go along with five points.

The Beavers play host to Briercrest College (Saskatchewan, Canada) in nonconference play at the MSU Dome Monday at 8 p.m. and returns to conference play Thursday at they play host to rival Dickinson State Thursday (7:30 p.m.) at the Dome.