Crookston, Minn.- The University of Minnesota Duluth men's basketball team put on quite a performance against the Golden Eagles in Crookston on Thursday, ultimately heading back home with a 109-69 victory. The win pushes the Bulldogs' overall record to 19-8, its NSIC standing to 15-6. UMD finishes the regular season with a stout 9-2 record in true road contests. 

It was an explosive start to this one offensively- a formula that favored the Golden Eagles early on. Just 2:05 into the contest, a De'Antray Hughes layup capped off two earlier UMC threes to put UMD in an 8-2 hole. But just as quickly as fortune had turned on the Bulldogs, it would shift back in their favor. By the 15:14 mark, a huge Austin Andrews dunk was the exclamation point at the end of a 14-4 UMD run that left it up 16-12. The train just kept rolling from there- a subsequent 10-4 stretch had the Bulldogs up double-digits at 26-16, something Joshua Strong ensured with a three-ball. Dating back to that 8-2 deficit, then, UMD had outscored UMC by a whopping 24-8 margin. Eventually, a Mattie Thompson and-one gave the Bulldogs their highest lead of the half at 35-16 with 10:12 left.

The Golden Eagles were far from done, though- they'd keep battling. The first step on their path back into this one was to trim the lead to single digits. UMC was able to do this a few times only for UMD to immediately respond with a score to sour the effort. It would take until there was just 2:02 remaining in frame number one, but the Golden Eagles' hard work would finally pay off. A Pedro Rossi layup made the score 44-36, and that one-digit deficit would hold until halftime. In fact, dating back to UMD's last 10-point lead at 44-34 with 2:16 left in the quarter, UMC went on an 8-2 run- the same way they'd started the frame- to make it 46-42 at the break.

Regardless, the Bulldogs still laid claim to the lead- and Drew Blair had been a big part of making that happen. The redshirt-senior guard already had 15 points on a 5-7 mark from the field and a 2-3 effort from deep. UMD's other double-digit scorer? Andrews, who tallied 10 on 5-9 shooting. Funny story about Andrews' layup that opened the scoring in this one- those were career points number 1000 and 1001 for the junior forward. Not too shabby. 

As a unit, the Bulldogs were really clicking from an offensive standpoint through 20 minutes. The squad finished the first frame shooting 18-31 from the field and an uber-precise 5-8 from deep. Credit to the Golden Eagles, though, as they were neck-and-neck with UMD in this arena throughout the first half. UMC closed the frame shooting 15-30 from the field itself. 

Then came half number two. 

The Bulldogs sure looked good in the opening stages of the frame. By the 16:21 mark, back-to-back threes from Charlie Katona and Blair had capped off a 9-2 run to put UMD on top by double-digits at 55-44. Even still, though, UMC had shown enough throughout the first half to make it feel as if this kind of advantage wasn't insurmountable. 

Well… what about a 20+ point lead? That's the territory UMD entered courtesy of a Thompson three to make it 68-47 less than three minutes later at the 13:33 mark. Make it a 22-5 run since the start of the half. For as strong of a start as UMD had established for itself through the first 20 minutes of this one, it was becoming clear that this second frame might be a whole different animal. 

And clearer and clearer it became- the Bulldogs just didn't stop scoring. What better than a Thompson dunk to push UMD's lead all the way to 30 at 77-47- and we still weren't past the halfway mark of the half yet. Once Lincoln Meister netted a layup to make it 84-53 with 9:05 to play, that 30+ advantage stuck around the rest of the way. And for a little under six minutes, the 30s range is exactly where UMD's lead would reside. Finally, with 3:13 on the clock, the Bulldogs broke into new terrain- a Thompson triple propelled UMD's lead to 40 at 100-60. 

The Bulldogs' initial exploration of this space wouldn't last all that long, as a Xzavier Jones layup and eventual free throw make shortly thereafter brought the lead back down to 37 at 100-63 with 2:37 to play. But when Isaiah Watts sunk a three just seven seconds later, the advantage would enter the 40s once again- this time, to stay. By the end of the game, the Bulldogs had secured a monumental 109-69 road victory. 

The last time the Bulldogs scored 109 points was back on Jan. 2 of 2022 in a win against Ferris State- and it'd taken them two overtimes to do it. That 40-point margin of victory is the highest for UMD since it set a program record of 75 points in this arena against Northland back on Nov. 16 of 2021.

Just look at these team scoring clips for the Bulldogs through the final 20 minutes: 24-34 (70.6%) from the field and a whopping 11-17 (64.7%) from deep. Meanwhile, UMD had been able to cool UMC's scoring in the second frame, the Golden Eagles going 12-36 (33.3%) overall and just 1-13 (7.7%) from deep. 

It'd been a Bulldog operation in half number two that had been led offensively by Thompson. The redshirt freshman forward put up a team-high 16 points in the frame on 7-8 shooting from the field. Joshua Brown had also come alive down the stretch, registering 11 second half points on a 3-5 effort from deep. 

Hopefully that Thompson name is still fresh in your mind, because his efforts in the second half helped to land him at the top of the team's scoring charts for the night. The redshirt-freshman forward tallied a career-high total of 21 points on 9-10 spectacle of a shooting effort from the field. Thompson also amassed five rebounds and two assists. Five other Bulldogs joined Thompson in double figures for scoring on the evening. Blair had 19 points on 6-9 shooting and a 3-4 performance from deep. Meister put up 15 points on 7-8 shooting to go with four rebounds and two assists. Strong tallied 14 points on 5-8 shooting and a 4-5 performance from behind the arc. Andrews, the night's Mr. 1K, closed with 12 points on 6-10 shooting. Brown rounded out the list with 11 points on a 3-5 effort from deep to go along with a team-high seven rebounds. Jack Middleton led the squad in assists with six.

All-told, UMD shot an impressive 42-65 (64.6%) from the field in this one. The Bulldogs coupled this with a 16-25 (64%) mark from deep.

The Golden Eagles were led by Rambo Badyal, who put up 21 points and went 4-8 from deep. Jones had 15 points to go with six rebounds. Matthew Allman scored 12 points on 5-9 shooting to couple with four boards. Last but not least in the double-figures club was Rossi, who tallied 11 points.

WORDS FROM WIECK

It's never a bad thing to see your team put up a peak-of-its-powers performance like this so late into the year, with postseason action right on the horizon.

To UMD head coach Justin Wieck, the offense was a display of the true power of a metric he's analyzed in this team all season: strong shot selection. Even on a 109-point night, there was room for improvement- but the 40-point victory sure helps.

"Tonight we were clicking on all cylinders offensively," Wieck said. "Other than our TO's in the first half, I thought all our guys did a great job in hunting good shots. When we take good ones, we've proven to be pretty good offensively."

It also helps that the Bulldogs did in fact clean things up in the giveaway department through the final 20 minutes, dropping from 11 turnovers in the first half to just four in the second. 

And just when you think a team performance like this couldn't be any more special, you analyze its individual pieces and remember Andrews' 1000 career points feat. The craziest thing is that this isn't even the first major touchstone the junior forward's hit this season, as he already broke past the 500 career rebounds mark back on Jan. 23 against SMSU. Whether it be boards or buckets you're after, Andrews has been a reliable name to call upon for nearly three complete seasons now. It's work that hasn't gone unnoticed by his coach for all of those seasons in Wieck.

"Austin has been a rock for our program for three years now," Wieck said. "Being able to crack 1000/500 with 2+ years to play is awesome. He deserves every accolade he gets. And he's going to keep improving throughout his career."