DULUTH, MN -- A heavyweight bout between the top two teams in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division saw the University of Minnesota Duluth come up short against Northern State University 85-73 Friday night at Romano Gymnasium.

Senior forward Brandon Myer got the Bulldog offense on the board Friday with a contested 10-foot pull up jumper. On the opening basket, Myer surpassed former Bulldog Mike Patterson (1961-1965) for second-all time in points scored at UMD. Myer eclipsed Patterson's total of 1,808 points. Two possessions later, redshirt-freshman Drew Blair knotted the game back up at five with a deep three from the top of the key. UMD (18-7 overall, 13-6 NSIC) would take their first lead of the game on the very next possession when Myer put back his own miss to grab a 7-5 advantage. After a 7-0 run from NSU (19-6 overall, 15-4 NSIC), senior guard Trevor Entwisle connected with a leaping Myer for an alley-oop lay-in. The basket helped the Bulldog offense, which started the game only making four of their first 14 attempts (28.6%) from the field, get back on track. 

With just under 10 minutes to go in the first half, Myer added three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt to take back a one-point advantage at 18-17. A couple of minutes later, a hook shot from the baseline for senior forward Alex Illikainen tied the game back up at 22 apiece. Down by four with 4:31 left in the half, Entwisle forced a charge with the Wolves on the break but Ilikainen missed the back end of a one-and-one opportunity on the ensuing possession to keep the NSU lead to three points at 28-25. With under a minute to play, Myer connected on a three-pointer from the right corner but Parker Fox responded with a three of his own with 10 seconds remaining to give the Wolves a 35-30 halftime lead.

Myer started the second half the same way he started the first half: a jumper from inside the lane that cut the Northern State lead to three points at 35-32. But it was the Wolves who jumped out of the gates in the second half with a 10-4 run, capped off with a two-handed slam dunk form Tommy Chatman, in less than two-and-a-half minutes to take a 45-34 advantage, their largest of the game to that point. The Wolves caught fire to start the second half from behind the three-point arc, converting four of their first six three-point attempts and made 10-13 (76.9%) of their shots from the field in the opening seven minutes of the half. Entwisle put a halt to that run with a three from the left-wing. The three-pointer was his first of the game on four tries. 

Down 16 with under nine minutes to play, Illikainen battled through two defenders to put back his own miss for his fifth basket of the game. Blair would find Myer at the top of the key for another three-pointer which cut the Wolves' lead to nine points with just over six minutes to go. Northern State would go back on the attack with a 6-0 run to take a 71-57 lead with 4:33 left to play. Senior guard Logan Rohrscheib's first three-pointer came at no better time to cut the NSU lead to 12 points at 75-63 with 2:20 to go. Entwisle added a three of his own and then converted the back-end of a one-and-one trim the deficit to 10 points with a minute-and-half to go. Illikainen's layup with one minute left brought UMD back to nine points of the Wolves but that's the closest they would get before dropping their sixth conference game of the year.

Notables: A highly contested opening 20 minutes saw six lead changes, four ties, and the largest lead by either team was six points for Northern State with 5:36 remaining in the half ... Three Bulldogs landed in double-figures for points: Myer (26 points, 10-17 FG), Blair (10 points, 3-9 FG), Illikainen (11 points, 5-15 FG).

Up Next: The Bulldogs will conclude regular season play and celebrate senior night at Romano Gymnasium tomorrow evening when they take on Minnesota State University-Moorehead. Tipoff is slated for 5:30 p.m.