Duluth, Minn.- UMD men's basketball came up short in an 84-72 contest against Winona State in Romano on Saturday. The loss leaves the Bulldogs' overall record at 13-5. UMD's standing in NSIC play is now 9-3.

It would've been all-but impossible to predict any outcome based on the early goings of this game, much less a double-digit Warriors victory. Within the eight minutes alone, there were 10 total lead changes. Things were knotted up only once in that entire span at a score of 5-5. It was the epitome of trading blows, and with almost 10 minutes of evidence to run off of, there was little reason to believe that this pattern wouldn't stand.

An Austin Andrews layup with 13:19 left in the half had marked lead change number nine, one a Joshua Brown free throw would later go on to affirm to leave the score at 16-14 with 12:25 on the clock. A hair over 20 seconds later, James Kelley potted a three for Winona State to ring in a decade of advantage-swaps. Ultimately, this 10th incarnation would end up being a little bit different in terms of its staying power.

That's because the Warriors did good work to build upon this edition of their lead- and in a hurry. In just 1:55 of playing time since it'd been down a score at 16-14, Winona State rattled off a 9-0 run to take a multi-score lead that, to this point, was something that either team only could have dreamed of seeing. The score was now 23-16 with 10:30 remaining. 

The next five or so minutes consisted of a slower- but steady- redemption story for UMD. In that time, the Bulldogs were able to jump out on a 13-7 streak of their own. Blair sank a couple of free throws to cap it off, leaving UMD just a point shy of an even score- or, perhaps more fittingly, two away from lead change 11. It was 30-29 with 5:03 remaining.

But if you consider the last 12 or so minutes of this opening frame to be its own story independent of the back-and-fourth prologue that came before it, it'd (unfortunately) be one bookended by Warrior hotstreaks.

Winona State didn't just go on another unanswered run to close out the last five minutes of the half- they team improved upon its previous effort. This was a 13-0 affair, one that allowed the Warriors to enter the break up double-figures at 43-29. Not too long ago, a score like that- with either team being on the advantageous side of it- would've seemed more than a little far-fetched.

And if Winona State only had one player named Connor on its team, the notion would have remained nothing more than far-fetched. Alas, there's two Warriors that wear that moniker- and each had a monster first half. Connor Dillon, for example, scored 16 points on 7-10 shooting to go along with four assists. His Connor-compatriot in Connor Drew scored 13, pairing his 6-9 outing from the field with three rebounds. These two took up the brunt of an 18-30 (60%) shooting effort for the Warriors through 20 minutes. Winona State was almost equally as hot from three-point land alone, clocking in at 58.3% (7-12) from deep in the half.

Another factor that had contributed to the Warriors' success to this point was their ability to generate new offensive chances for both this Connor regime and beyond. Winona State had five steals in the first frame compared to just one for the Bulldogs

UMD was led through 20 minutes by Austin Andrews (who himself had been precise in his scoring on 4-7 shooting) and Blair, with each tallying eight points. Joshua Brown wasn't far behind with six points on 2-2 FG shooting to go along with three rebounds. Katona had a two-point bucket and a team-leading five rebounds to his name at the break.

Winona State would spend the first five minutes or so of the second half slowly developing its advantage. By the 15:52 mark, the Warriors' lead hit a new peak of 20 points at 55-35. It seemed as if they might go on to set game-high after game-high in perpetuity from that point onwards, their offense clearly showing no signs of stopping. 

Sometimes, though, life throws you a curveball. 

It turns out that the Bulldogs weren't quite ready to lay down for the evening. Instead, they started to develop some offensive mojo of their own. It was a slower grind than the kind of sudden outbursts Winona was putting together- it mirrored the earlier 9-0 run in that way. Funny enough, these streaks share yet another commonality: Blair being at the charity stripe to cap them off. Blair's 2-2 trip didn't quite put UMD back within a point this time around, but it did do the ever-important work of striking the Warriors' lead down to just a single digit. With 8:21 still to work with on the clock, the score was now 68-59, Winona's lead just nine.

The Warriors didn't take too kindly to this shift in balance. When Connor Drew sank a layup to re-establish a double-figure advantage for Winona at 70-59, the team put that dissatisfaction on display by never allowing its lead to fall below 10 for the rest of the night.

In fact, from the 8:04 mark of that 70th point onwards, the Warriors just kept adding to their tally. It was an offensive effort that saw Winona rewarded with a peak lead of 16 points during this stretch, the score at that point being 77-61 with only 4:54 left. UMD would keep battling to trim the deficit down to just 10 at a score of 79-69, but by then, there was only 2:27 to work with. Regardless, the Warriors would outscore the Bulldogs in the remaining two minutes and change by a margin of 5-3. When the smoke settled, Winona had manifested with an 84-72 victory under its belt.

UMD did good work to better contain both Connors in the second frame- even still, each of them had a fairly strong half. Connor Dillon led the way with 14 points (on just 4-12 shooting this time, though). Connor Drew had seven points and four rebounds in the last 20 minutes.

The Bulldogs had tightened up on the defensive side of the ball at-large, too, pushing the Warriors from what felt like an automatic first frame down to a shooting effort of 12-26 (46.2%) from the field. Which still isn't terrible, but compared to what had gone on in the early stages of the game, it was a steep decline. UMD even tightened up in terms of ball discipline, allowing just one steal through the final 20 minutes.

UMD's offense was also much improved in period two. The team went from shooting 11-27 (40.7%) in the first half to a 15-31 (48.4%) effort down the stretch. Again, it's all relative, but this is an upgrade. And it was a half's work that had been led by a surging Blair. The redshirt-senior guard tallied 18 points in the final 20 minutes- and efficiently so, going 6-14 from the field in the process. Blair had also tallied two assists during this stretch. Another notable second-half performance was that of Katona, who was a bit of a Swiss Army Knife throughout the second frame. The junior forward scored four points while grabbing six rebounds and dishing out two assists. 

In just about every metric under the sun, the Bulldogs had very much improved upon their first half struggles with a much stronger second frame. Even from a pure points-scored standpoint, UMD had come out on top through the final 20 43-41. Unfortunately, though, a slower start was met by a performance from the Warriors that resided on the exact opposite side of that spectrum. That had been enough to leave the Bulldogs in a hole that they just couldn't dig out of the rest of the way, no matter how strong the effort. 

Blair led all Bulldogs in scoring in this one, propelled by his work down the stretch. He closed with 26 points to go with three assists and three rebounds. Blair had also been a worthy presence at the charity stripe, closing the game having gone 8-10 from the line. Austin Andrews had 14 points on stout 7-12 (58.3%) shooting from the field paired with five rebounds and three assists of his own. Katona had six points but held a resounding lead in the rebounding department, closing the night with 11 boards. He also had two assists.

Connor Dillon exited the night with 30 points to his name on exactly 11-22 shooting from the field. The guard also had four assists. Connor Drew had 20 points of his own through a 7-11 (63.6%) shooting effort that he added seven rebounds to. As a team, Winona shot 30-56 (53.6%) from the field on Saturday. 

UP NEXT

UMD will look to yet another weekend road trip as a chance to rebound from Saturday's loss. The Bulldogs are currently 6-0 on the road in NSIC play to start the year, so there's reason to believe they can pull it off. The effort will start with a trip to Sioux Falls to play the Cougars on Friday, Jan. 20 at 5:30 p.m. before a stop in Marshall to play SMSU on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 3:30 p.m.

NOTE: For the rest of the season, the men's team occupies the earlier time slot of doubleheaders. The women's team will now fill the later spot. For example, tip-off times for the women's games next weekend are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 5:30 p.m. Saturday.