The UMD men's basketball team defeated Southern Arkansas 94-73 on Friday to kick off both the season and the American Family Insurance Classic that the Bulldogs are playing host to. UMD starts the year 1-0, looking to go perfect on the tournament weekend tomorrow. 

Early on in Friday's contest, the Bulldogs and the Muleriders were in total lockstep with one-another. No team could really jump out to much of a lead. Southern Arkansas enjoyed the biggest advantage of the night when it had a five point hold on the game at 21-16 off of a Carel Ray Jr. three-pointer with 10:36 to go. A Lincoln Meister and-one brought the Bulldogs back to within two at 21-19 and set the scene for a Joshua Strong bucket in transition to tie the ballgame at 21-all. Back and fourth the two teams would go until the score was 28-25 UMD with 6:30 left in the frame. At that point, a switch flipped within this Bulldog team. They'd finish the first half as red-hot as could be. From the 28-25 mark, UMD went on a 20-6 run to take a 48-31 lead into the half. The name of the game for the Bulldogs in this stretch was equal distribution. Six different scorers chimed in, including Jack Middleton with six points off of two three-balls and Charlie Katona with four hard-earned points from under the basket. Meister sent the game into halftime with a put-back at the rim with just under two seconds left that spawned from a Strong steal at the other end.

By the end of the half, two Bulldogs had already cracked double-digits. Middleton led the way with 12 points on a 4-7 (57.14%) shooting effort from beyond the arc. Strong was a huge story in the first frame. The sophomore guard hadn't started a game in his freshman season and had been called upon here to play that role in a one-two-punch home-opener and season-opener in the absence of Joshua Brown. It's safe to say that Strong was delivering thus far- he ended the half with 10 points on 3-5 shooting, including going 2-3 from three. As a team, the Bulldogs shot 8-17 (47.1%) from beyond the arc in the frame while holding the Muleriders to just 2-11 (18.2%). Elsewhere, Andrews already had six rebounds to his name at halftime, exactly three on each end of the court. The junior forward had nine points himself on 4-6 shooting (66.67%) entering the second half. 

Tightly contested as the second half was- scoring for the frame would end at 45-43 in favor of Southern Arkansas- the Bulldogs consistently called back to their early 17-point advantage as a cushion in the face of Mulerider pushback. In fact, UMD was often able to increase its lead even more. The fact that a Strong three-pointer opened this half to make it 51-31 was early evidence of this. Shortly after the Muleriders would cut their deficit down to 13, the lowest it would be in the second half, at a score of 74-61, the Bulldogs again turned on the jets. UMD would go on a 17-6 run in four minutes to leave the score at 91-67 and give the Bulldogs their biggest lead of the night at 24 with just 3:06 left to go. This streak was capped off by a nice steal-and-score play from Drew Blair. UMD would lead by 20+ the rest of the way until the Muleriders scored a three-ball with just three seconds left to trim UMD's final advantage down to 19 at a final score of 93-74.

Three Bulldogs scored 10+ points in the second frame, all of them different than those who had done it in the first. Blair had eleven in the half, including a 4-4 effort from the free-throw line. Both Charlie Katona and Andrews had 10 on uber-efficient shooting percentages, Katona going 4-5 from the field and Andrews going 4-4. Andrews added another four rebounds to his name in the process.

By the final whistle, it was Andrews that had the team-lead in points with 19 on 9-11 (81.82%) shooting. Toss in 10 rebounds and give him a double-double for the evening. Strong had 17 points himself to go along with a team-high six assists. Three other Bulldogs ended the night in double figures, those being Katona (17 points), Middleton (14 points) and Blair (14 points). As a team, the Bulldogs shot 35-62 (56.5%) from the field and 41.7% (10-24) from three. 

Southern Arkansas was led by LaTreavin Black's 14 points. The senior forward shot 7-12 (58.33%) from the field  Both Black and Ray Jr. had seven rebounds on the night.  

WORDS FROM WIECK:
A good word of the day for this UMD squad? Adaptability.

It was a trait that was employed on both ends of the court for the Bulldogs, especially in the first half. For one thing, UMD had to adjust to the style of the team on the other end of the court. This might seem obvious, but in the case of an out-of-conference team like Southern Arkansas, it's an even bigger task than usual- one UMD head coach Justin Wieck felt his team was able to tackle well. 

"I thought our defense was really good in the first half especially," Wieck said. "I thought we were locked in and guarding them pretty well. It got a little loose in the second half...but we were scoring out on the other end, too. I felt like our effort was there, our intensity was there. They're big and athletic- we don't see that athleticism a lot in our league up here, so it was a little bit different style of play... being able to adjust on the fly a little bit and kind of push that lead out in the first half, I thought was really good for us." 

At the same time as the Bulldogs were battling this external foe, they were working through the internal implications of being without a starting guard in Brown for the night.

Wieck felt as if his team rose to this occasion in a big way, too. That's an important word here: team. It was an effort that was put in by-committee. Especially in the face of an ever-elusive squad like the Muleriders and their revamped look in their 2022-23 campaign, the value in this is tough to quantify.

"I thought we were a little sluggish to start the game, but also, credit to (Southern Arkansas)," Wieck said. "We didn't know much about them. Brand new coach, ten new players, we didn't have a lot of film- we didn't have any film. I told our guys, 'we're going to have to feel it out a little bit, see what they do.' I thought when our guys off the bench came in, Mattie, Lincoln, Zach, when those guys came in midway first-half, you saw our intensity go up, our energy level go up. Those guys provided a really big spark for our team, which kind of got us firing on all cylinders there. Credit to our guys off the bench. Lincoln had ten points, Zach and Mattie had some really good plays, especially on the defensive end, so those guys did a great job helping us bring a ton of energy tonight." 

One of the biggest stories surrounding this UMD team heading into the year has been that it maintained all five of its starters from a successful 2021-22 season. For as talented as every single one of those players is, they're not on the court for 40 minutes a night- and sometimes, one of them might not touch the floor for a game at all. An effort like the Bulldogs were able to put together on Friday- in the pressure of a season/home opener, nonetheless- signifies the importance of the rotational piece. It's the kind of thing that can push the envelope for a team both down the line in the season and, well, right away.

"I've always told people I think I've got seven or eight guys who should be starters, guys that are starter-level players in our league," Wieck said. "I think it shows the depth of our team. Josh Strong comes in tonight and plays 38 minutes out of nowhere, had a fantastic game scoring 17 points. Lincoln had 10 points off the bench, and really I thought provided a really good defensive presence for us as well. Those two guys usually are off the bench for us... I think it just goes to show our depth. We're missing one of our top guys, some other guys step up, and that's what you want to see as a coach. I always have a ton of faith in those guys to bring a big time spark to us. Credit to those guys for being ready when it was their time tonight." 


UP NEXT:
The Bulldogs will be back in action in Romano on Saturday, November 12 to finish out their slate of the American Family Insurance Classic with a contest against Nebraska-Kearney at 3:00 p.m.