The University of Central Missouri outscored the University of Minnesota Duluth 36-23 in the second half to earn a 76-60 victory in the season opener for both teams Friday night. The game was the second game of the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association/Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Classic at the JustAGame Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells, Wis. The Mules, who received votes in the National Association of Basketball Coaches preseason poll, shot 53 percent from the floor while UMD hit 37 percent of its shots. UCM has won all three meetings between the two clubs. 

The Bulldogs played well in the first but struggled in the final 20 minutes of the contest shooting 24 percent and 17 percent from behind the arc as it tried to keep up with the Mules. UMD ran out to an early 13-3 lead after making five of its first six buckets including three three pointers. Sophomore forward Luke Harris made a jumper with 10:05 to go in the first half to give the Bulldogs their biggest lead of the game. The lead evaporated four minutes as UMD missed its next five shots to let UCM back into it. 

UMD, which prided itself last year on winning the turnover battle and limiting the number of mental errors, committed nine turnover compared to UCM four. The Mules scored 12 points off turnovers in first half to take 40-37 lead into the half. The Bulldogs stalled coming out of the gates in the second half and UCM used its smaller and more experienced lineup to gash the game open with the first few minutes. A 16-2 run in five minutes in gave the Mules a 56-39 advantage. 

Sophomore guard Trevor Entwisle help slash the lead to 10 on two occasions after converting on a three point play once then knocking down two of his game-high 12 free throws.The UCM duo of Jakob Lowrance, who scored eight, and Micheal Winger, who drained a pair of threes, scored 14 of the team's final 16 points to lockdown the victory.

"Central Missouri responded better than us in the second half," said UMD Head Coach Matt Bowen. "They came out with more bounce and their more experienced lineup fueled them. They got out to a big lead before we could recover. For the opener, I though we did some things really well against a solid team. We didn't turn the ball over too many times, we were aggressive and got to the free throw line often, which is something we didn't do enuogh if last year. We also did well in tracking down balls and winning the rebounding battle. Lindenwood provides us with another difficult challenge that we look forward too."

Entwisle, who missed the last 23 games last year due to an injury, pounced early and often, collecting a team-high 19 points. Sophomore guard Logan Rohrscheib added nine points and Harris chipped in seven points off the bench. Senior guard Kyle Schalow gathered seven boards for UMD. Lorwance led all players with 26 points and eight boards.
 
UMD concludes the classic tomorrow facing Lindenwood University, who beat Bemidji State in the first game, with tip-off set for 3:00 p.m.