The University of Minnesota Duluth stopped its losing skid at four games with a dominating 66-50 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory over the University of Minnesota-Crookston on Friday evening in Crookston.

UMD (4-4, 1-1 NSIC) returns to the .500 mark overall and in league play while grounding the Golden Eagles (2-4, 0-2 NSIC) in the dominating road victory.
 
TOP SCORERS
• Senior center Brett Ervin dropped a game-high 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting, while junior guard Brendon Pineda had 15, five rebounds, and four assists. Junior guard Pierre Newton had nine rebounds, eight on the defensive end for the Bulldogs.
• Senior guard Tyler West, Jr. netted 15 points and nine defensive rebounds to lead Crookston. Freshman Brian Enriquez netted a trio of three-pointers to finish with 11 points of the bench.

The Bulldogs took a five-point lead to the locker room and could have had more, a surprisingly low 2-of-7 from the charity stripe in the opening half before rebounding with a 12-of-14 mark in the second. The Bulldogs shot 33.3 percent (4-of-12) from three-point range but didn't need it as they shot 51.1 percent overall in routing the Golden Eagles.

Crookston scored the first six points of the second half as neither team looked strong out of the locker room. Ervin laid in a basket and got fouled to give UMD a two-point lead before West tied the game once again. A pair of free throws by Newton put UMD ahead for good as they opened a 14-0 run before Enriquez dropped a three-pointer with just under nine minutes remaining to break the skid.

Crookston held nearly even with the Bulldogs, 20-17 down the stretch, but were unable to make up ground as they shot 37 percent in the second half and 39.6 for the game.

UP NEXT
UMD continues its final road trip of the first half tomorrow evening when the Bulldogs head to Bemidji to take on the Beavers of Bemidji State University. Opening tip is set for 6:00 p.m. following the women's contest.