Senior guard Jordan Nuness found himself on the right end of nearly all the big plays on Tuesday night as he tied a career-high for points with 26 to lead the University of Minnesota Duluth to a 76-73 win over the University of Minnesota-Crookston.

The Bulldogs (7-3) and the Golden Eagles (2-7) battled point-for-point the entire first half and played to nine ties during that span before UMD secured a 37-35 lead heading into the break.

UMD quickly made it a 42-37 contest in the opening portion of the second half before UMC tied the game at 42-42 with 17:17 on the clock.

It then became a 10-point lead for the Bulldogs thanks to a Nuness three-pointer at 12:04 to put the Bulldogs up 56-46.

The Golden Eagles slowly worked their way back into the mix, even taking the lead before the Bulldogs tied the game 58-58 at the 8:49 mark.

From there the two squads exchanged the lead six times before the game was tied once more with the score at 68-68 with just less than four minutes remaining.

Junior forward Brian Sykora would put the Bulldogs up 76-73 on a jump shot with just 16 seconds left on the clock to force a Golden Eagle timeout.

UMC’s Bryce Cummings immediately launched a game tying three point shot as the clock ticked down but the ball bounced in and out of the basket to give UMD the win.

Sykora scored 24 points for the Bulldogs and went 4-for-4 from the free throw line and 10-for-21 from the field.

Sophomore guard Steve Duncan once again proved to be a reliable scoring threat for UMD as he posted 11 points in the contest.

The Bulldogs will go for their eighth win of the season on Wednesday as they face host Minnesota State University-Moorhead at 8 p.m.