It was a rough weekend for both the Minot State men’s and women’s basketball teams at the MSU Dome, with both teams dropping a pair of conference games to St. Cloud State and Minnesota State.

The men dropped a 71-57 decision to the Huskies on Friday, Jan. 9, before falling to the Mavericks, 72-67, on Saturday, Jan. 10. The women lost 80-71 to St. Cloud and 95-56 to second-ranked Minnesota State.

Deuce Benjamin led the Beavers with 16 points against St. Cloud and Darik Dissette added 15. The Beavers failed to knock down a 3-pointer in the loss, missing all 10 shots from distance. Minot State shot 36 percent from the field.

Minot State trailed by 10 at halftime and never led.

Bob Griechen led the Mavericks with 20 points.

Minot State’s struggles from 3 continued against Minnesota State, though the Beavers did manage to knock down four of their 17 attempts. Isaiah Alexander scored a team-high 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting. Dissette added 19 points for a 34-point weekend. Alexander, Dissette and Carson Yale all pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. Alexander also dished out five assists.

The Beavers (9-9 overall, 3-7 NSIC) shot nearly 50 percent from the field, hitting 28 of 57 shots.

Minot State trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half, but managed to cut the deficit in half to 39-31 at the break. The Beavers got as close as 68-65 with 14 seconds remaining in regulation following a layup by Alexander and 70-67 with four seconds left, but Colton Benson went 4-for-4 at the line down the stretch for the Mavericks (8-8, 5-5).

Traijan Sain led the Mavericks with 19 points.

Unlike the men, the Beaver women did have a lead at some point over the weekend, jumping out to a 25-16 advantage after the first quarter against St. Cloud and led 43-40 at halftime. But the Huskies rallied in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Beavers by 12 in the final eight minutes.

The Huskies took a 63-62 lead on a layup by Alana Zarneke with 6:07 remaining. The two teams were tied three times after that before St. Cloud State took the lead for good at 74-71 after a 3-pointer from Kristi Kottke, ending the game on a 9-0 run. The Beavers (7-10, 4-6) went the final 1:38 without a point.

Kristi Kottke finished with a double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. RachelKottke poured in 23 points to lead the Huskies.

Taryn Hamling led the Beavers with 16 points. Jessica Mogen and Jaime Skeggs each had 10.

The Beavers hung with the second-ranked Mavericks (16-0, 10-0) in the first half, trailing 37-25, but were outscored by 27 points in the second half.

Minnesota State had five players finish in double figures. Natalie Bremer led the way with 21 points. Mackenzie Schweim had 14, Hannah Herzig had 12 and Haylee Stokes and Rhyan Holmgren finished with 11 and 10, respectively.

Hamling was the lone Beaver in double figures, finishing with 14 points.

Both the men and women are back in action next weekend as they hit the road to face Southwest Minnesota State on Friday, Jan. 16, and Sioux Falls on Saturday, Jan. 18.