The University of Minnesota Duluth needed someone to step up and break them out of a slump after falling in four of five entering Saturday night. For at least one night, someone did: senior guard Pierre Newton collected 42 points, seven assists, five steals, and four rebounds to leads the Bulldogs past Southwest Minnesota State University 103-88 at Romano Gym.

Newton scored 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting in the first half to set the pace for a near-record-setting night for the UMD (15-7, 11-5 NSIC). He fell just five points shy of Jerry Meyer's February 1, 1994 program record 47 against the University of Wisconsin Superior. After missing his first four shots of the second half, he continued scoring on 5-of-7 down the stretch to end the night shooting 63.6 percent (14-of-22) while adding 11-of-12 at the free throw line.
 
Despite Newton's dominance, Southwest Minnesota State (10-11, 6-10 NSIC) led early, nailing a three-pointer to take a six-point lead just 5:15 into the game. The Mustangs would not build a greater lead the rest of the way but held UMD at arm's length, taking a 47-45 lead to the locker room when the Bulldogs missed a pair of free throws on a foul called at the buzzer. As Newton cooled off, the rest of his team heated up and the Bulldogs ran off 24 consecutive points to turn a 52-48 deficit into a 72-52 lead.

Southwest Minnesota State turned the tide, cutting the Bulldogs lead down to as few as seven thanks to a 22-9 run that made the score 81-74. UMD would stretch it back out, scoring nine straight and 14-of-18 with senior forward Brendon Pineda putting an exclamation mark on the victory with an alley-oop dunk -- his second jam of the night, having performed a tiltawhirl dunk earlier during UMD's extended run. He finished with 17 points while senior guard Taylor Lavery also added 20 on the night. Nine different players scored for the Bulldogs, while sophomore center Lane Olson grabbed a team-high six rebounds.

UMD shot 53.6 percent in the first half and actually improved in the finale frame hitting 22-of-36 (61.1 percent) to finish at 57.8 for the game, sinking 12 threes and 17-of-22 from the charity stripe. Southwest simply could not keep pace in the second half but finished shooting a very respectable 46.3 percent (31-of-67) including 11 threes. The Mustangs out-rebounded UMD 40-30 on the night and scored 20 second-chance points because of it. Redshirt freshman guard Taylor Schafer led the way for SMSU with 23 points off the bench, while sophomore center Carter Kirk had a game-high nine rebounds for the Mustangs.

The Bulldogs will be on the road for four of their final six in the NSIC regular season. With a crowd of 1,434 at Romano Gym tonight, UMD will hope for that continued support next time they return home in two weeks as No. 3 Minnesota State University Moorhead comes to Duluth for a battle of the top two teams currently in the NSIC North Division.

First though, the Bulldogs will have to deal with Upper Iowa University and Winona State University on the road. UMD and UIU will open the aciton Friday night in Fayette, Iowa. TIp-off is set for 8:00 p.m. following the women's contest.