SIOUX FALLS --- Keyed by a fast start and high energy throughout the night, the University of Sioux Falls Men's Basketball Team (19-10) rolled to a 96-51 victory over Minot State (14-18) in the NSIC Sanford Health Postseason Tournament at the Stewart Center on Wednesday.

USF opened with a 15-3 lead and led 44-25 at halftime. In the second half, the Cougars doubled up the Beavers, 52-26, to take a decisive 96-51 victory and avenge a 75-70 loss to MiSU on Jan. 19 at the Stewart Center.

The victory sends USF to the quarterfinals of the NSIC Sanford Health Tournament for a fourth straight season. USF, which won its second straight home first round tournament game, has won 4-of-5 games. They will meet the No. 1 seed in the North and overall NSIC regular season champion Northern State (23-6) at noon on Sunday at the Sanford Pentagon.

"This was a great night for this team," said USF Head Coach Chris Johnson, who registered his 211^th career win and 195^th at USF. "We played with tremendous energy and had a lot of fun out there. Everybody contributed in this win. This group loves to play this game and they have great chemistry," added Johnson, whose USF program is now 4-6 in league tournament games.

Keying the victory was a pair of USF seniors. All-NSIC guard Trevon Evans had 23 points, three rebounds, five assists and a steal in 30 minutes of work. Aaron Rothermund also reached double digits with 16 points, including 4-of-6 from three-point range and 5-of-8 overall from the field. He also provided four rebounds, assist and steal. The Cougars, which shot 55.6 percent from the field (35-of-63) received points from 13 players. USF, which shot over 50 percent for the ninth time this season, hit 10-of-22 from three-point range for 45.5 percent. It was the eighth time this season and third in four games in which USF had at least 10 triples as a team. USF, which was 16-of-25 at the foul line, had a substantial edge on the boards at 49-to-28. For the 28^th time in 29 games, USF, the top rebounding team in the NSIC, had outboarded its opponent. It was the 19^th time this year, USF had outrebounded its opponent by 10 or more.

Evans surpassed 20 points for the 34^th time in his career and ran his career point total to 1,274, which ranks 16^th on USF all-time list. Evans, who has the most points at USF in two years at the school, also has 663 points this season which is the fourth most for a season in school history. Additionally, he now has 55 career double-digit scoring games and with two more triples has the eighth most threes in a career at 153.

Senior Drew Guebert added seven points and seven rebounds as he moved his career total to 1,958 points and 607 rebounds. He is one of seven players with at least 1,500 points and 600 boards in school history. Sophomore Teachloach Pal had eight points and six rebounds while redshirt freshman Chase Grinde added nine points and five rebounds with two assists. Justin Taylor came off the bench to add nine points, including three by dunk, and had a rebound and blocked shot.

As for the Beavers, they were led in scoring by David Akibo with 16 points and nine rebounds while Max Cody had 10 points. However, USF made a big adjustment against Akibo who had 30 points and 10 rebounds in the last meeting between the teams.

USF, which leads the league in defending shooters (41.2 percent) held MiSU to just 32.3 percent for the game on 20-of-62 shooting. USF held its third opponent this year to 51 or fewer points. And, they limited the Beavers to 7-of-23 from three-point range.

Part of the USF's success came in sharing the basketball. USF tied a season-high with 19 assists (Concordia St. Paul, Jan. 12, 2019) on 35 made baskets. The Cougars also had just 11 turnovers, while forcing MiSU into 14 mistakes.

Game Breakdown --
Early on, the Cougars had control of the game. USF opened up a 10-2 lead on a three-pointer by Austin Slater and pushed the advanced to 17-3 on a lay-up from Guebert with 14:40 to play. It was a good sign of things to come for USF, which then had a 19-14 advantage for a 36-17 lead with 4:37 to play in the half when Evans scored inside. At the 2:58 mark, Evans led another surge. USF had a 6-2 run for a 44-22 lead with 52 seconds to play. Cody's three with two seconds left cut the deficit to 19 (44-25).

In that opening half, USF had a 10-to-0 lead in points off turnovers and a 6-0 margin in fast break points. Rothermund hit a trio of three on five attempts and scored 11 points to lead USF. Evans had 11 points and three assist for USF, which made 15-of-33 shots for 45.5 percent. MiSU was just 10-of-27 for 37 percent from the field in the opening half. By the break, USF had a 26-to-13 margin on the boards.

The second half proceeded the same way for USF as the opening 20 minutes. The Cougars hit 20-of-30 field goals for 66.7 percent in the second half, which was too much for MiSU to overcome after trailing by 19 at the halftime break.

Evans hit a three 12 seconds into the half and led a 10-1 run which turned USF lead into a 30-point (56-26) advantage at the 15:50 mark.  MiSU cut the lead to 22 points at the 12:31 mark when Dorian Aluyi knocked home a triple.

However, the momentum was all USF and they pushed the lead to 45 at the 3:22 mark when Ryan Wieneke hit the second of two straight baskets off assists from Milan Sulic. As a result, the Cougars finished their home record at 8-4 and increased their series margin to 10-3 against MiSU, which they defeated for the second time in the conference tournament.