The improvement the University of Minnesota Duluth has shown immensely from last season in tonight's defeat to the University of Sioux Falls. A season ago, the Cougars collected a 25-point victory over the Bulldogs. Nearly the identical roster went toe-to-toe with Sioux Falls again tonight and dropped a hard-fought 73-66 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference game at Romano Gymnasium. Trevon Evans had 26 points for the Cougars while junior guard Logan Rohrscheib knocked home 20 points to lead the Bulldogs.

UMD briefly took the lead with 9:50 to go in the second half but Sioux Falls managed to retake the lead a few minutes later and keep the Bulldogs just far enough behind to improve to 8-2 and 3-1 in conference play. UMD fought off a slow start in the first half and erased a eight-point halftime deficit but it ran out of gas in the back-half of the final half. The Bulldogs suffered their second straight loss of the season and dropped to 5-3 and 2-2 in the NSIC.

Evans carried the Cougars in the first 20 minutes as he scored 20 of the team's 38 points in the first half. Evans buried a three-pointer as time expired in the first half to put Sioux Falls up 38-30 at the break. UMD held Evans in check as he got six more points in the second half. The Bulldogs shot 34.3 percent from the field in the first half and had difficulty breaking through the Cougar defensive zone. UMD took 21 threes in the opening 20 minutes, hitting only six. However, the Bulldogs came out strong to open the second as they drained six of their first seven shots and took a 44-42 lead on a 14-4 run. UMD never built on that blitz as they lost the lead and only regained it once more as Sioux Falls did enough down the stretch to pull away with the victory. 

The Bulldogs hung in there as the lead changed hands eight times and was tied on 10 other occasions. They shot a better clip (46.4 percent) in the second half and attempted only nine shots from downtown in the final 20 minutes with five finding the bottom of the net.

Rohrscheib, UMD's three-pointer specialist, had five of the Bulldogs' 11 three-pointers. He single-handedly kept the game close.  Drew Guebert connected on a three to put the Cougars up 54-51 but Rohrscheib answered back the very next possession to even it at 54-54. Sioux Falls went on a 5-0 run before Rohrscheib chipped it back to a two-point game again with his three shots at the line after getting hammered on an outside-the-arc chance. Evans threw down a breakaway dunk with 4:35 to get the Cougars back to a five-point advantage. Once again, Rohrscheib had an answer as he nailed another triple in the corner.

That following Bulldog possession, junior guard Trevor Entwisle got raked by Evans and had a chance to tie it again. He converted one of two at the line and UMD never got another chance as Sioux Falls scored on every possession after the Bulldogs cut it to a one-possession game. In the end, the Cougars used the bench and rebounding advantage to seal the win. Sioux Falls had 17 bench points compared to UMD's six and outrebounded the Bulldogs 45-26.

Junior forward Brandon Myer had another solid all-around game. He ended up one rebound shy of his fourth double-double in the last five outings. Myer ended with 12 points, nine rebounds, a game-high six assists and three blocks. Senior forward Sean Burns also tallied 12 points and senior guard Mamadou Ngom added 10 points.

UMD hosts Southwest Minnesota State University tomorrow afternoon at 5:30 p.m.

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