Men's College Basketball: Warriors fall in finale

WILLMAR - Ridgewater’s Joe Leuze scored 21 points in his final game in the Warriors’ gym on Saturday afternoon but his team suffered a 70-62 setback to the St. Cloud Technical College Cyclones.
It was also the final game for four other outgoing players on head coach Darren Tighe’s first Warrior team.
DeJuan Curry, Aaron Ruter, Eric Smith and Mowlid Muhamud also started along with Leuze.
It was a fine game to go out on. Ridgewater trailed by five at half, 31-26, and fell behind by as many as 12 in the second half. A frantic 15-3 run that had the crowd roaring put the home team up by four with five minutes showing.
The Cyclones whipped up a rally of their own with a 13-3 run to win by eight and end up 14-13, but out of the playoff picture. Ridgewater ended up 9-18 and 2-12 in the MCAC South.
“Today and throughout the season this team played extremely hard all 40 minutes,” Tighe said. “It never lacked for effort.”
Smith, a 6-8 post from Hollaway, supplied nine points and nine rebounds. Curry, from Freeport, Ill., finished with 10 points and eight rebounds and New London-Spicer’s Ruter has 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
The Warriors made 9 of 10 at the line but just 3 of 25 from the arc, each make by Leuze, one of four former Willmar Cardinals on the team.
St. Cloud Tech 70, Ridgewater 62
SCT....................................31 39 - 70
Ridgewater........................36 36 - 62
St. Cloud Tech
28-56 FG; 10-25 FT; 9 fouls … Scoring: Brody Grantz 2, John Brandi 3, Alex Cappard 22, Charles Young 11, Scott Nystrom 4, Aston Bailey 24, Chris Laymon 3, Kahnem Cooper 1 … 3-point shots: Brandi 1, Young 1, Bailey 1, Laymon 1 … Rebound leader: Bailey 8, Cappard 7 … Assist leader: Bailey 2 … Steal leader: Three with 1
Ridgewater
25-61 FG; 9-10 FT; 17 fouls … Scoring: Tyler Steggeman 4, Dylan Schueler 6, Joe Leuze 21, Mowlid Muhamud 2, Aaron Ruter 10, Eric Smith 9, DeJuan Curry 10 … 3-point shots: Leuze 3 … Rebound leader: Smith 9, Curry 8, Ruter 7 … Assist leader: Ruter 4 … Steal leader: Four with one