The #12 ranked University of Minnesota Duluth men's basketball team opened up the 2023 Haribo Invitational with a dominant 90-66 win over the host University of Wisconsin Parkside Rangers to earn their second win of the regular season.

First Half: UMD (38) vs. UWP (30)

The Bulldogs would give up the first score of the night with a three pointer from the Rangers, but would be quick to respond with five points of their own. The scoring from each team would stay close over the majority of the first half with UMD benefitting from 10 free throw attempts throughout the first 20 minutes. An 11 point run from the Bulldogs would skyrocket their momentum, giving them a nine point lead with just over six minutes left to go. They would hold on to this lead, holding strong and keeping the scoring tight again to close out the first.

Final Score: UMD (90) vs. UWP (66)

UMD would start out the second half with five unanswered points, and lead the game 43-30. This lead would only grow stronger as the Bulldogs would be able to prevent the Rangers from stringing together back to back buckets throughout the final 19 minutes, ending the game with a 24 point lead.

UMD would shoot 34-58 with a 58.6% field goal percentage, and be nearly perfect from the line shooting 18-23 with a 78.3% free throw percentage. Perhaps what really gave the Bulldogs the edge would be their ability to recover the ball, collecting 10 offensive rebounds and contributing to their 60 total points in the paint.

Katona Reaches 1,000

With his 18 point performance tonight, senior forward Charlie Katona reached his 1,000th career point tonight. Katona becomes the 33rd Bulldog to reach the achievement, after senior guard Joshua Brown reached the milestone late last season.

Top Performers

Graduate student Drew Blair led the game with 21 points tonight, shooting 6-11 from the floor with three rebounds and two steals. Charlie Katona put up 18 points tonight to reach his career milestone while also leading the game with seven rebounds.

Up Next

Men's basketball will face the Davenport University Panthers tomorrow in their second game of the 2023 Haribo Invitational. The action will kick off for the Bulldogs at 5:00 PM.