Marshall, Minn.- UMD men's basketball ended up on the short end of a competitive 69-63 contest against Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday. This marks the first time the Bulldogs have lost a true road game all season, their record in that category now sitting at 7-1. UMD's overall record moves to 14-6, with its NSIC mark landing at 10-4. 

The Bulldogs spent most of the first half digging out of a hole.

SMSU certainly looked like they were playing in front of a home crowd early in this one, as it quickly established a 9-2 lead by the 16:46 mark of the first frame. The Mustangs' advantage would grow to as high as nine over the next two minutes and change, leaving the score at 16-7 with 14:35 left in the half. The next four minutes would instead belong to the Bulldogs. UMD surged out on its first big offensive run of the day with a 10-4 stretch capped off by a Drew Blair layup to make it 20-17 with 10:06 still to go in half one. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the Mustangs had a response ready to go- a 5-0 counter by SMSU ran its lead back up to eight at 25-17 with the clock reading 8:16. 

It was a story of runs in this half, so why not another? An ensuing 8-2 stretch from UMD highlighted by a huge Joshua Strong three-ball again left the Bulldogs down just a score at 27-25 with 4:42 left until the break. And there'd be no substantial answer on stand-by for the Mustangs this time- instead, UMD just kept sticking around. Ultimately, the Bulldogs were rewarded for their efforts- with 2:28 remaining in the first, a pair of Strong free throws finally knotted the score back up at 31-31. Why stop there? With just 50 seconds remaining until the break, it was Austin Andrews that found himself shooting two for a chance to give UMD its first lead of the game. Andrews was calm and collected under the pressure, draining both attempts to make the score 35-33 with just 50 ticks left. Admittedly, this advantage wouldn't last all that long- Anthony Costello would sink a bucket just before the clock hit triple zeros to knot the contest back up at 35-35 a pop. Still, given where they'd been eight minutes ago- or at the beginning of the game, really- this outcome wasn't too bad for the Bulldogs. 

The backbone of UMD's climb back was efficient shooting from all over the court. The Bulldogs went exactly 50% from the field through 20 minutes on 13-26 shooting. Most importantly, a large chunk of that work was done from beyond the arc. In fact, UMD enjoyed that same 50% clip from three-point land alone, going 5-10 from deep. At the forefront of this movement had been Strong, who led the team in scoring at the break with 11 points on 3-4 shooting from three. Jack Middleton wasn't far behind in either respect, putting up eight points on a 2-3 effort from deep.

There was just something about that 50% figure, apparently- that's what SMSU was shooting from the field after a half, too. The Mustangs' clip came from a 15-30 operation from the field. At the top of the charts was Jake Phipps, who put up 16 points on a spotless 6-6 shooting effort. Dunwa Omot had 11 points while shooting 5-8 (62.5%).

The Bulldogs would strike first to snag the inaugural advantage of the second frame, a Charlie Katona bucket making the score 37-35 just 19 seconds in. That's when the Mustangs seemed to remember they never got around to answering UMD's 8-2 stretch from back in the first- here, they put up a belated response. SMSU rattled off seven-straight points to reclaim a lead of five at 42-37 with 16:21 to go in the game. Plenty of time to work with, obviously - and the Bulldogs certainly got to work. Just three minutes and change later, UMD had drawn back to even at 46-46 by way of a massive and-one effort from Mattie Thompson. 

The next five minutes were a particular kind of back-and-forth that was fitting for this game so far. SMSU scored four-unanswered points to take a 50-46 lead by the 10:23 mark- there's the back. UMD answered right away, even generously adding a point in their response to reclaim the lead at 51-50 with just 8:30 left in the half. Aaaaand the forth.

Hindsight is often a cruel thing- this instance is no exception. That 51-50 score would be the last time the Bulldogs held a lead in this contest. 

Just a minute after jumping back ahead, UMD was suddenly down two scores again at 56-51 with 7:10 to play. It'd been a game all about call-and-response, scoring runs met with scoring runs. Even if the follow-ups were sometimes a little delayed, they'd always come. Unfortunately, this spelled the moment that someone cut the wire. This isn't to say the Bulldogs stopped fighting- quite the contrary. But every time they'd pull within a bucket of an even tally, the Mustangs would come down the other way and pot a shot of their own. A backbreaker of a three from Omot with 3:34 remaining to leave the score at 63-57 was a quintessential example of this.

By the 2:08 mark, SMSU still found itself up six at a score of 65-59. It started to look as if the Mustangs could just wind out the clock on this one- not so fast. Out of nowhere, it seemed as if the Bulldogs were returning to their own running ways. It was a small unanswered stretch, but at this point in the game, it was a mighty one. Four-straight points in under a minute (highlighted by a Middleton three) suddenly left UMD down just two at 65-63 with 1:12 remaining on the clock. 

Everything looks great here until you remember the most fundamental tenet of this game. At that point, you'll probably see what ended up happening coming.

Just 22 seconds after Middleton's three-ball, Major Majouk took to the sky with a massive dunk to put the Mustangs back up two scores at 67-63. And with just two seconds left in the clock, Omot found himself at the line with a chance to really seal the deal- he did just that. Final score 69-63. The Mustangs had closed the game out on a 4-0 run. Call and response. 

By the end of the game, it was Middleton that stood as UMD's leading scorer with 16 points on 4-8 shooting from deep. The senior guard paired that total with four assists. Katona was close by in the scoring race with 14 points on 5-8 (62.5%) shooting from the field to go with a team-high six rebounds and two steals. Strong ended the night with 11 points while going 3-5 from three. Blair closed out UMD's  double-digit scorers list for the afternoon with 10 points.

A recounting of this game from UMD's perspective wouldn't be complete without highlighting Andrews. With four more boards to his name on Saturday, the junior guard eclipsed the 500 mark for rebounds through his career. He exits the weekend with exactly 502 to his name. When you realize Andrews has averaged 8.1 boards a night across his entire 62-game career… it all starts to make more sense. The scariest part is, he still has almost half of a season to work with to build upon that tally. 

Coming into this game, Omot was SMSU's leading scorer on the season- he certainly played like it on Friday. The sophomore guard scored 28 points on 10-17 (58.8%) shooting from the field and 4-8 shooting from deep while leading his team in rebounds with seven. Phipps posted 20 points on a 7-9 (77.8%) shooting effort to go with five boards. Majouk was the last Mustang to hit double-figures, scoring 10 points and pairing them with six rebounds and four assists. Cliff McCray had a game-high seven assists on the day.