Duluth, Minn.- The University of Minnesota Duluth men's basketball team scored a spectacle of an 87-53 win against Bemidji State in Romano to close out the regular season on Saturday. UMD heads into NSIC postseason play with a 20-8 overall record and a 16-6 in-conference mark. 

"Spectacle" was said for a reason.

The speed of this game was often as breakneck as it gets- and most of the time, it was UMD that was pushing the pace. For a while, it felt as if the Bulldogs were snagging the ball on one end and heading off to the races to score on the other at least every other second. Maybe it wasn't that extreme, but reality wasn't exactly that far off- by just the 15:22 mark of the first half, UMD already held a 15-3 lead, one capped off by a Drew Blair three-ball. It took the Bulldogs less than five minutes to develop a double-digit advantage that they wouldn't lose for the remaining 35 minutes and change.

UMD just kept flying into the break. And along the way, amidst all of the offensive flair (of which there was no expense), another thing became more and more apparent: the Bulldogs were as locked in as ever on defense early in this one. By the 7:49 mark of the first half, UMD had 27 points. Its pace had (relatively speaking) cooled ever-so-slightly from a feverish start. Meanwhile, almost eight full minutes removed from having three points to their name, the Beavers now had… six. UMD's lead, equal parts at the hands of its scoring and defending, was now 21- and it'd stay at 20+ until the final buzzer.

By the 3:30 mark of the first, it was time for another touchstone. A Blair free throw landed the Bulldogs at 38 points. How many points had UMD allowed in the 4+ minutes since we last checked in? Exactly two. The score was 38-8. The Bulldogs would lead by 30+ the rest of the game. 

The half ended about the only way that it ever would have been appropriate for it to end- with a massive Joshua Brown dunk to leave UMD at what was then a game-high advantage of 34 at 45-11. If you're keeping score at home, that means the Bulldogs gave up just three more points in as many minutes to close out the first frame. Safe to say things could have gone worse through 20.

Blair certainly enjoyed the festivities through one frame. The redshirt-senior guard had a team-high 11 points in the half on 4-7 shooting. Not far behind him was Jack Middleton, who had eight points while being tied for the team lead in rebounds with Lincoln Meister at five. Five Bulldogs found themselves with six or more points through the frame. Charlie Katona had a team-leading three assists through 20 minutes. 

Defensively, UMD held BSU to just a 4-30 overall shooting effort from the field in the first half. The Beavers went just 2-16 from deep. 

Given what we'd just seen, the second half started rather predictably. By the 14:26 mark, Middleton had potted a three to boost the Bulldogs' lead up to what would eventually prove to be a game-high of 43 points at 60-17. You've heard this story before, right? "And the lead would stay at 40 the rest of the way." This time though, it wasn't so simple- BSU started to find some sustained life offensively. By the time there was 11:03 on the clock, a Mohamed Kone free-throw had put the finishing touches on a 13-2 BSU run to bring UMD's lead down to 32 at 62-30. But that's why you build big leads- besides, the Bulldogs were far from finished offensively, anyways. And with 4:39 remaining, a three-ball from a certain special player changed the complexion of the game once again.

Only fitting that on Senior Night, Isaiah Watts would land himself 13:26 of playing time. Included in that tenure was the aforementioned three-bomb that put the Bulldogs' lead back into the 40s at a score of 81-39.

But once again, a major deficit didn't totally shake BSU out of competing. Soon enough, the Beavers had broken out on an 8-0 run to leave UMD's lead at 34 at a score of 81-47 with 2:13 on the clock. Not particularly pressing, but… it'd always be nice to have someone stop the bleeding. Reintroducing: Watts. The senior guard sank yet another triple to put an end to the Beavers' run and put the Bulldogs back up 37 at 84-47.

UMD's final margin of victory would eventually settle back down to 34 at a final score of 87-53. But without those Watts buckets… who knows what that number would have ended up being. 

It was another instance of scoring by committee for UMD in half number two. Eight Bulldogs scored points here, four of them closing with at least six of them. At the top of the pack was Thompson with seven points on 3-5 shooting to go along with three rebounds. Those other six-point-getters were Blair, Watts and Noah Paulson. 

Four Bulldogs ended up closing with double-digit points on the day. Blair led the way with 17 points on 6-10 shooting to go with five rebounds. Middleton had 13 points to pair with seven boards. Joshua Strong netted 12 points on 5-9 shooting. Rounding out the list was Austin Andrews, who potted 10 points on an efficient 5-6 outing to go along with five boards.

The Beavers were led by Jayce Lowman, who had 12 points on 4-6 shooting. Johnny Tennyson wasn't far behind with 10 points on a 3-5 effort to go with five rebounds. Each of these players did all of their scoring in the second half. Elsewhere on the stats sheet, RJ Smith led the way in rebounds with eight. 
 

WORDS FROM WIECK

So much of this game goes back to the Bulldogs' ability to make life a nightmare for the Beaver offense through those first 20 minutes. 

While UMD head coach Justin Wieck certainly ties much of that effort directly to what was happening on the court, some of his explanation behind what unfolded proved to be just a little more external- but perhaps close in terms of importance. Well, really, the two worlds end up working together in-tandem in this case. 

"Our energy was awesome," Wieck said. "Best crowd we had all year, and our guys fed off that. Tons of deflections, and our guys were physical all night."

You want to talk about energy… great time to bring Watts' name back into the fold.

It's hard to think of the senior guard as anything but a sparkplug throughout his tenure as a Bulldog- both on and off the court. Tonight, it was certainly no different- just even more special given the circumstances.

Wieck's been with Watts since the beginning- he knows the value that the player's brought to this organization better than just about anyone. So, take his word for it here:

"So awesome to see Isaiah play 12 minutes and hit two 3's tonight," Wieck said. "He has been a rock in our program. His connectivity as a teammate and his infectious personality has helped propel our program. He is special!"

But Watts wasn't the only member of the UMD men's basketball family to be honored on this night- introducing Charlie Gorres.

Gorres didn't suit up tonight- injuries have kept him out of play since a debut season back in 2019-20. One thing's for sure, though- impact isn't limited to what you do on the court.

Through all of Gorres' time with this team- his year of play, his time rehabbing injuries, his current role as a student assistant manager this season- Gorres has been a meaningful presence on the squad. He serves as a great encapsulation of what a Bulldog should look like- and that's something certainly worth honoring. 

Again, maybe it means more to hear it straight from the words of his coach in Wieck:

"Chuck was the first recruit I had when I got here," Wieck said. "He took a leap of faith and helped put our program on the map. Injuries kept him off the court, but he has continued to impact our program daily. A tremendous human being."

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs will start their journey through the NSIC Tournament with a First Round contest against Minnesota State in Romano on Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 6:00 p.m.