Minnesota State University Reporter

Issue date: 2/12/08 Section: Mens Sports

Minnesota State's Atila Santos earned NCC Player of the Week honors after a 26-point, 21-rebound performance against UMD.

When Minnesota State left home five games ago, Atila Santos started to play the best he had all season.

But it was his performance in the one home game in that span that broke the records.

Santos grabbed a school-record 21 rebounds in Thursday's 73-60 home victory over Minnesota-Duluth to go with a career-high 26 points.

"His effort Thursday night against Duluth was one of the best I've seen in Division II," Minnesota State coach Matt Margenthaler said. "When a guy gets 26 points and 21 rebounds, you just don't see that at any level."

Santos' performance comes amid a five-game stretch where the center has averaged 20.8 points per game and 15.4 rebounds per game. That's up from his season average of 15.7 ppg and 10.3 rpg. The big man followed Thursday's game by scoring 20 points and hauling in 13 rebounds in Saturday's 87-75 road victory over St. Cloud State. It was another impressive performance with Santos' average jumping from 8.9 rpg five games ago to 10.3 rpg now, which puts him 11th in Division II in that category.

"Right now he's playing with such confidence that guys around him are getting so many more opportunities because he's demanding so much attention in the post," Margenthaler said of Santos. "We need him to keep playing at that high level."

Jake Morrow broke out of a two-game slump with a team-high 26 points in the victory over the Huskies.

The game was tied at 41 early in the second half Saturday before a pair of free throws from Morrow, two more from Santos and a 3-pointer from Morrow, giving the Mavs a 7-0 run in a 1:04 span. The Mavericks never lead by less than four the remainder of the game.

It was a bit of a contrast to Thursday's game against the Bulldogs, when MSU led 44-32 at halftime and trailed by less than 10 for only 18 seconds in the second half.

Santos' 26 points and 21 rebounds marked just the third time in school history that a Mavericks player had a 20-20 game. The 21 rebounds tie for the third-most rebounds in a Division II game this season.

Santos earned North Central Conference Player of the Week honors for the second straight week and fourth time this season.

"Confidence is a crazy thing," Margenthaler said. "Right now, you couldn't tell him that he couldn't play on half the Division I teams that you see on TV."

The Mavericks have won nine of their last 10 games, with their lone loss in that span coming to South Dakota. The Mavericks hold a two-game lead over the Coyotes and Augustana in the conference standings with four games remaining.

"If we take care of business we control our own destiny," Margenthaler said. "We work hard now, so we can enjoy our time in March and reap the rewards."


Chris Jagerson is a Reporter staff writer

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools