Sioux Falls, S.D.- UMD men's basketball held stable control against the Cougars in Sioux Falls on Friday, coming out on top 72-54. With the win, the Bulldogs' record improves to 14-5, their NSIC mark jumping to 10-3. UMD remains undefeated in true road games at 7-0. 

This game took a bit of time to really establish its rhythm. Someone had to come out of the feeling-out stages with an advantage, though- and that was UMD. Slower scoring aside, it was in fact the Bulldogs that took control early. Their initial lead blossomed to as high as eight at a score of 10-2 before a Sioux Falls bucket shrunk it to six at 10-4 heading into the latter 10 minutes of the half. 

Here, both teams started to pick up some more pace. There were 32 total points scored in the back end of the frame compared to the 14 that had been potted earlier. Lots of this scoring can be credited to the Bulldogs- in fact, it started to look as if they could score 32 all on their own for a second. A Joshua Brown three-ball at the 9:21 mark cemented a double-digit lead for UMD, the first of the game, at a score of 15-4. But Sioux Falls picked a pretty good time to warm up themselves- a subsequent 6-0 run by the Cougars cut their deficit down to just five at a score of 15-10. It took them just over a minute to accomplish this. 

UMD's response of a run would be a little more drawn out- relatively, at least- but it would reap some pretty nice benefits. By the 4:42 mark, a nice drive to the bucket from Mattie Thompson had propelled the Bulldogs back up to a double-figure lead at 23-12. 

There was more scoring to be found heading into the break, to be sure, but it ended up resulting in a stalemate. Sioux Falls never drew within closer than eight points of tying things up, and that's the deficit they'd walk into halftime with. Through 20 minutes, the score read 27-19 UMD. 

It was a total team effort for UMD in the first half. Every single Bulldog that saw the court also saw their name on the scoresheet. Two names stood out at the break for UMD: Drew Blair and Austin Andrews. Blair led the Bulldogs in both points scored (eight) and rebounds (five) heading into halftime. Andrews wasn't far behind on the scoring front with six points of his own. 

UMD wasn't just cohesive on the offensive end of the court- it was just as focused on defense. The Bulldogs held Sioux Falls to just 8-28 (28.6%) shooting through 20 minutes. Only five Cougars had scored points. Of particular note: Matt Cartwright, the leading scorer in the entire nation in terms of pure production, was held to six points on just 2-8 shooting from the field.  

In spite of this, the game was far from out of reach for Sioux Falls going into the final frame. An early Cougars bucket courtesy of Jack Thompson cut their climb down to just two scores at 27-21 with 19:15 to play with. There's a world where this sparked some momentum for Sioux Falls, perhaps even resulting in them knotting things up before too long. This is not that world- instead, the exact opposite happened. 

For the next two minutes and change, UMD shot off on a scoring run the likes of which this game hadn't really seen just yet. When the smoke settled, the score was 38-21. The Bulldogs had just scored 11 unanswered points. There was still 16:22 left, so they weren't out of the woods yet… but this probably earned a few sighs of relief. 

Technically, a Jake Kettner make at the line spelled the end of UMD's scoring reign- but that didn't much cool the Bulldogs down. It took UMD less than a minute after that free throw to push their lead to a game-high of 20 at 42-22 off of a Drew Blair layup. Still, plenty of game left- 15:17 on the clock. Fair to say, though, that things were looking pretty good for the team in maroon.

The Bulldogs wouldn't grow sour towards what they were seeing on the scoreboard the rest of the way.

It's not passive work to maintain a 20-point lead- the trailing team never just concedes. Consider a moment in this one where Sioux Falls had mounted a 9-2 run to draw within 14 at 53-39 with 8:25 remaining in the game. Since it'd taken the Cougars just four minutes to pull that off, that left them with more than enough time to work with if they could maintain that kind of pace. If. Unfortunately for Sioux Falls, UMD didn't fall into passivity- it just kept working, double-digit lead or no double-digit lead. The fruits of the Bulldogs' continued labor? A knockout blow in the form of a 9-2 run of their own to run the score back up to 62-41 with only 5:36 remaining. It was Brown that had the honors of extending the lead to 20 and 21 with a pair of makes at the line.

Sioux Falls still didn't go away. The Cougars actually answered right back with an 8-2 stretch to pull within 15 again at 64-49 with 3:57 on the clock. Maybe the Bulldogs didn't pull out an UNO reverse card in this instance, but with under four minutes left, they didn't much need to. Instead, they played steady basketball the rest of the way, never letting that advantage dip below 15 but often leading by more than that. Eventually, the Cougars simply ran out of time. When that final buzzer sounded, UMD was still on top 68-53.

Notable statlines littered the box score for the Bulldogs in the closing 20 minutes of this one. Andrews put up 10 points on 5-8 (62.5%) shooting in the second frame, adding in four rebounds as well. Blair matched his earlier outing with eight more points, this time on 4-5 shooting. Charlie Katona also had eight points in half number two, his coming on a perfect 3-3 effort from the field. Brown scored most of his seven points in the half from the stripe, making five of his six free throws. Also involved in the UMD shooting gallery was Jack Middleton, who put up six points on 2.3 shooting. All-in-all, as a team, the Bulldogs shot 16-26 from the field to close the game, an impressive 61.5% shooting percentage. 

Kenji Scales was absolutely lights-out for Sioux Falls down the stretch. He scored 15 points for the Cougars on near-perfect 5-6 shooting from the field. As a team, though, Sioux Falls still couldn't quite break through in terms of scoring. UMD's defense was as stout as ever- the Cougars went just 11-28 (39.3%) from the field in the last 20 minutes. 


By the end of the night, four Bulldogs found themselves in double figures for scoring overall. Fittingly, Andrews and Blair tied for the team lead in points with 16 a pop. They even did it on almost the exact same shooting splits, Andrews going 8-15 (53.3%) and Blair going 8-14 (57.1%). Why not keep the similarities rolling- both players also closed the night with six rebounds. And each had at least two assists, Blair barely prevailing on that front with three. There was also a tie for second in team scoring between Brown and Katona, who both ended the game with 10 points to their name. Brown went 2-4 from the field while Katona shot 4-5. Brown also grabbed four rebounds. All told, UMD shot 29-53 (53.7%) from the field in this one. 

Powered by his impressive second half, Scales ended the night as Sioux Falls' leading scorer with 17 points on 6-8 shooting. Otherwise, the Cougars were held to just 19-56 (33.9%) shooting on Friday. Zane Alm had a team-leading six rebounds, tying Andrews and Blair for the game-high in that field. 

WORDS FROM WIECK

It just seemed like there was an extra oomph behind this Bulldog squad on Friday. 

If you ask UMD head coach Justin Wieck, it was actually a hat trick of oomphs that fueled the team's performance in Sioux Falls: standout defense, practice and a desire for retribution.

"I thought we were as locked in defensively as we have been all year," Wieck said. "Our week of prep was fantastic. Our guys were hungry to get back on the court after last week. I give them a ton of credit for responding and playing the way we expect to play on both ends."

One player found himself at the top of this pack of hungry Bulldogs on Friday in the eyes of Wieck: Andrews. 

The junior foward's been a steady presence for UMD this entire season. In Sioux Falls, though, a special overall team effort seemed to have called for an equally special individual effort. It didn't go unnoticed by his head coach.

"I thought Andrews had a great spark about him tonight," Wieck said. "He figured out how to score in the post and also be efficient on the glass. He's one of the best in the country, and it was great to see him with a big spark tonight."

Maybe there was just something in the air on Friday… or maybe this Bulldogs team is pretty good.