Luke Winkel and the St. Cloud State men’s basketball team are headed to the NCAA Division II national tournament.
The 19th-ranked Huskies (25-6) received an at-large berth to the 64-team tournament and are seeded fourth in the Central Regional. They will play No. 5 seed Missouri Western (21-11) in a first-round game on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Lee Arena in Topeka, Kan.
No. 3 Washburn University is the top seed and will host the Central Regional for the second straight year. The Ichabods defeated a Minnesota State Moorhead squad that starred former Ankeny player Carson Johnson in last year’s regional final.
Washburn (31-1) will host No. 8 seed Minnesota Duluth (21-11) on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The winner of that game will play either St. Cloud State or Missouri Western in a regional semifinal on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
Winkel, a former Ankeny Centennial standout, helped lead the Huskies to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular season championship. It was their first regular season league crown since 2003.
St. Cloud State then advanced to the title game of the conference tournament before dropping a 76-65 decision to sixth-seeded Minnesota Duluth, which avenged a 92-87 overtime loss on Jan. 17. The loss snapped the Huskies’ 18-game winning streak.
Winkel, a sophomore point guard, was named to the all-tournament team after averaging nearly 25 points in his team’s three games. He was earlier selected to the all-conference first team for the second straight year.
Missouri Western also received an at-large berth after losing to Washburn, 85-69, in the semifinals of the MIAA tournament on Saturday. The Griffons are coached by former Northern Iowa player Brooks McKowen, who guided Upper Iowa to three NCAA Tournament appearances in 12 seasons before taking over the Missouri Western program a year ago.
There are five Iowans on the Griffons’ roster, including former CIML players Vance Peiffer of Waukee and Bode Goodman of Southeast Polk and Waukee Northwest, who both played against Winkel in high school.