UMD men's basketball put together a convincing 72-56 win on the road against Mary on Saturday to close out a 2-0 weekend of NSIC play. The Bulldogs now sit at a record of 9-2, still yet to lose in-conference at 5-0. 

Despite the fact that they would go on to win by double figures, it would take some time for the Bulldogs to take control of this one. The first half saw 10 lead changes in total as both teams flip-flopped marginal advantages. For much of the opening frame, the biggest lead either team could muster was four. The Bulldogs had done so a few times, once to open the game 4-0 and again at a score of 20-16. It was the Marauders' turn to lead by two scores when UMD got stuck on 20 for just a little too long, allowing Mary to break off an 8-0 run to go up 24-20. 

Speaking of runs…

It'd take the Bulldogs just under two minutes to have things knotted back up at 24 apiece with 7:56 left in the half. A minute and change later, UMD resecured the lead at 26-24 with 6:10 left to work with. And boy, did the Bulldogs work with it. All things considered, from the moment UMD found itself down four to the end of the first half, the Bulldogs had taken off on a 20-5 run. Included in this was a stretch of 17 unanswered points where the Marauders went without a basket for more than eight minutes. Just when it seemed like Mary was starting to wake up when Treyton Mattern registered a three-point play and cut the lead down to a single digit at 38-29, UMD answered right back with a Mattie Thompson put-back dunk at the buzzer. The Bulldogs took a 40-29 lead into the break. 

A one-two punch of Austin Andrews and Drew Blair had led the Bulldogs in scoring in the half. Andrews closed with 13 points on 5-7 (71.4%) shooting from the field while going a perfect 3-3 from the line. The forward also snagged a team-high six rebounds in the frame. Blair scored 10 to go with three boards and two assists. All this talk about rebounds is fitting, as UMD had dominated the glass through 20 minutes. The Bulldogs snagged 27 boards as a team compared to just 14 for the Marauders. UMD's work in the paint didn't stop there- it outscored Mary 24-10 around the basket.

First half festivities aside, the Bulldogs were still very much on the road-and playing in front of a pretty decent crop of Marauder fans, to boot. They'd need to be careful not to take their two-digit advantage for granted. And early in the second half, it looked as if Mary was starting their ascent back into the contest. The Marauders had gradually erased what had grown to be a 14-point UMD lead out of the break with a 4-0 run to leave the score at 43-33 with 17:11 remaining. Mary was now within a bucket of trimming their deficit below 10, and they had a lot of runway left to work with. Things looked to be falling into place for the Marauders after a Lucas Mayer steal on the defensive end gave them the balance again. Not long after, though… Joshua Strong would snag the ball right back. 

UMD would go on to re-establish its 14-point advantage at 47-33 with 14:59 to play. From that point onwards, they'd never lead by less than 12. But the Bulldogs didn't just throw it into cruise control-they kept working. By the 6:39 mark, their lead had crossed the 20-point plateau at 65-44 off of a Joshua Brown layup. Andrews would score shortly after to give UMD a game-high 23-point advantage. 

Credit where credit's due to the Marauders- they didn't quit, either. In fact, they'd respond to this touchstone with a 9-0 run to bring themselves back to within 14 at a score of 67-53 with 3:43 still at their disposal. But it was too little, too late. The Bulldogs were able to ride things out to a huge 72-56 victory on the road. 

Andrews had another impressive outing in the second frame, putting up a team-high 10 points on- like clockwork- 5-7 shooting. He also outdid himself on the glass, grabbing seven boards this time around. As a team, the Bulldogs shot exactly 14-28 from the field in the half. Much of this came by way of them continuing to be a force in the paint- UMD outscored Mary 24-6 in that arena this time around. Credit also to the Bulldog defense, which held the Marauders to just 9-24 shooting in the half.

Andrews ended the night with his fourth double-double of the young season, scoring 23 total points on uber-efficient 10-14 (71.4%) shooting from the field while grabbing 13 rebounds. Blair was the Bulldogs' other double-digit scorer for the evening, closing with 15 points. The guard also had seven rebounds and three assists to his name. Strong led the team in assists with five and notched both of the team's two steals on the night all while grabbing three boards himself.

The Marauders were led by two double-figure scorers of their own in Mattern and Kam Warrens. Mattern had a team-leading 15 points to pair with both three assists and three rebounds. Warrens shot 4-8 from the night en route to 12 points while notching two assists and three boards of his own. As a team, though, Mary was held to just 34.5% shooting on the night, as they went 19-55.

WORDS FROM WIECK
Such a major moment in this game was UMD's effort to close out the first half. While it's easy to look at a 20-5 run and immediately start thinking about the offensive work that led to the 20, equally important is the defensive effort that kept that other number down to five. It was the work of the Bulldog defense in particular that UMD head coach Justin Wieck wanted to highlight, not only in the late stages of the first frame but for much of the game overall.

"I thought we really focused in on the details defensively," Wieck said. "We had some scout breakdowns early in the game, but there's no doubt our defense sparked our whole team for the middle 30 minutes tonight."

It's clear that no expense was spared on the defensive glass, where UMD outrebounded Mary 34-25 on the game. 

In general, the Bulldogs seemed to control the paint on Saturday. To Wieck, this was no accident- it's something his team had planned for.

"Mary is a physical team, especially 3-5 in their lineup," Wieck said. "That was a huge point of emphasis for us going into the game. Our guys responded to that challenge and matched their physicality tonight."

Matched it they most certainly did- and then some. 

It's hard not to look at a performance like the one the Bulldogs put up on Saturday with a little bit of awe. For a road team to come in and take control of a matchup like UMD did seems to be no easy feat. At the end of the day, though, sport is a system, one you can develop schematics for and plans in accordance to. If you can maneuver that system well enough, you'll put yourself in a good spot to win. At the end of the day, to Wieck, that's exactly what UMD did both down the stretch and beyond in Bismarck. 

"We just (kept) the foot on the pedal on the defensive end all night," Wieck said. "Our guys executed a game plan and won 1 on 1 battles at a high rate tonight."