Saturday night's match-up between the top two teams in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference's North Division proved a tale of two halves for the University of Minnesota Duluth, as the fourth-ranked Minnesota State University Moorhead scored 54 points in the first half and held on to hand the Bulldogs their first conference defeat of the season, 90-80 in Moorhead.
UMD (7-3, 4-1 NSIC) made a comeback effort of the second half, even as head coach
Matt Bowen used the end of his bench in the closing minutes to turn a 19-point halftime deficit into a 10-point final differential while No. 4 MSU Moorhead (12-1, 5-0 NSIC) clinches its 12th-straight victory at the Bulldogs' expense. UMD never led and trailed by as many as 25 in the second half before making its comeback in the last 8:32 of the match-up.
The Dragons shot an even 50.0 percent for the game (29-of-58), including 11-of-26 from three-point range which really made the difference as the Bulldogs, to their credit, shot 48.1 percent making good on 26-of-54 and 7-of-24 from three-point range. Moorhead also scored 25 points at the free throw line on 31 attempts while the Bulldogs were 17-of-25 from the charity stripe, drawing 20 fouls on the night while the Dragons forced them into 21 of their own.
Senior guard
Pierre Newton and
Taylor Lavery each reached double digits scoring for UMD with 14 and 12 respecitvely. Senior forward
Brendon Pineda added 12 points. No Bulldog had more than four rebounds, and no players for Moorhead had more than five as each team shot so well in the game. The Dragons held a 38-33 edge on boards overall and 27-24 in the defensive end.
Moorhead took a 54-35 lead to the locker room at halftime after shooting nearly 60 percent, 19-of-32, in the first half including six three-pointers. The Dragons got 23 points on the night from senior center Isaac Sevlie and 17 from junior forward Ayob Ayob. Each had already cracked double digits after the first 20 minutes.
UMD will have a chance to bounce back before a short holiday break as the Bulldogs match up once again with St. Cloud State University next Saturday afternoon. Opening tip in the rematch between UMD and SCSU is set for 4:00 p.m. in St. Cloud, following the women's contest.
