Sioux Falls, S.D.- The University of Minnesota Duluth men's basketball team ended up prevailing in what was a roller-coaster of a 72-61 contest against Upper Iowa on Sunday to remain in Sioux Falls and lock in an NSIC Tournament Semifinals berth. The Bulldogs are now 22-8 on the season, but this one immediately becomes the biggest mark of them all. 

The first half was about as back-and-forth as it gets. 

Five ties and five total lead changes headlined a frame where no team ever held a lead higher than two possessions. The Bulldogs were the first to accomplish the feat- at the 10:35 mark, a Joshua Strong three-ball made the score 20-16. UMD was able to do it again shortly after courtesy of a Charlie Katona bucket to make it 22-18 with 9:59 left until the break.

Speaking of Katona… the junior forward had already made it more-than-clear that he'd come to The Pentagon to hoop. The Shakopee, Minn. native already had 11 points through 10 minutes, half of the Bulldogs' total output to that point. Throw four rebounds into the mix, too. 

But this four-point lead wouldn't last forever. Instead, UIU went on a bit of a scoring surge. The Peacocks potted seven-unanswered points to snag a three-point lead at 25-22 with 8:26 left on the clock. It was the Bulldogs' turn to respond- and that's what they did. UMD scored six-straight of its own to snag the lead right back at 28-25. At this point, the teams looked like they'd just keep trading runs- an 8-0 effort from the Peacocks this time around left them with what was a game-high lead of five at 33-28 with only 3:04 to play in the frame. There'd be no mini-flury from the Bulldogs to close out the half, but they'd still do good work to trim into the deficit. Through 20 minutes, the score sat at 34-32 UIU. 

At the break, it was Katona that sat at the top of UMD's scoring charts. The junior forward had 13 points across a 6-8 shooting effort from the field. Katona was also second in the rebounding department with five boards, sitting behind only Joshua Brown, who already had seven. On the other end, three different Peacocks were tied for the team lead in scoring at seven points: Austin Hilmer, Dylon Jones and Nick Reid.  Jake Hilmer had six assists in the half. 

A major offensive storyline early in this one was UIU's red-hot shooting from beyond the arc. The Peacocks started this contest 5-10 from deep. However, the Bulldogs did good work to better neutralize this force down the stretch of the first half, UIU missing its last four triple attempts to fall to an efficiency mark of 35.7% (5-14). 

If you're a fan of storylines, the first bucket of the second half was for you. For one thing, it knotted the game back up at 34-34, continuing the theme of tightly-contested basketball that was seen throughout the first half and would be seen for most of the second. For another, it was Katona that scored it- make it 15 for the junior to this point. The Peacocks would briefly take the lead back at 36-34, but once UMD reestablished an advantage at 37-36 courtesy of a Drew Blair layup with 16:51 left, the Bulldogs would hold it for quite some time. Relatively speaking considering this game, at least. It was a reign that lasted a second shy of four minutes before a pair of Lucas Duax makes at the line not only tied things back up but shifted the lead back in the Peacocks' favor at 42-41. 

Que 41 seconds of chaos. 

Blair pushed in for a layup to give the Bulldogs the lead back at 43-42. In comes  Hilmer the other way not long after to pot a jumper and make it 44-43 UIU. And not long after that, Andrews sank a layup of his own, the score now 45-44 UMD with 12:11 on the clock. 

This was a sequence pretty indicative of this game that would set up something that would end up being totally alien to the contest's narrative. Would've been impossible to know it then, but from that 12:11 mark onwards, the Bulldogs would never trail again- they wouldn't even be forced to settle for a tie. Instead, UMD responded to UIU's five-point lead in the first half with one of its own in the second, a Lincoln Meister making it 49-44 Bulldogs with 9:53 to play.

 The Peacocks weren't finished quite yet, though. And before long, four-unanswered UIU points them within a point at 49-48 with 7:14 on the clock. You already know that the Bulldogs were ultimately able to hold the lead… but the extent of their work, relative to how this game had played out so far, might be somewhat of a surprise. When a Meister free-throw made it 57-52 UMD with 4:14 to play, the Bulldogs' advantage wouldn't dip below double figures the rest of the way. This was an effort aided by an absolutely massive Blair three-ball some 30 seconds later to push the lead to eight at 60-52. 

Something about that three in particular felt massive in terms of shifting the trajectory of this contest once and for all- and what would happen the rest of the way seems like it could support this. By the 2:12 mark, a Katona layup had helped UMD do the unthinkable in such a shot-for-shot affair: take a double-digit lead at 64-53. The Peacocks were able to cut that deficit down to as low as seven, last at a score of 66-59, but by then, they only had 58 seconds to work with to claw any further. This is why you build such a fortified lead, after-all. Instead of a miraculous UIU comeback in the final seconds, UMD pushed its margin of victory back to 11 to seal the deal on a massive 72-61 win.

One of the main storylines through the final 20 minutes of this one: a suffocating Bulldog defense. UMD held UIU to just a 9-29 shooting mark in the second half. Better yet, the Peacocks were unable to land a single three the entire frame, going 0-7. That means that UIU went exactly 0-11 from deep dating back to when they'd started on a huge 5-10 effort form that distance. 

Another: Blair. The redshirt-senior guard came alive down the stretch, erupting for 17 points on 6-10 shooting. Also, remember that three-ball he made to push UMD's total tally to 60? That pushed Blair into a tie for second all-time in UMD program history with Chris Stanley at 239. Not bad. 

But no retelling of UMD's second half would be complete without mentioning Brown. The junior guard tallied a whopping four blocks in the second half alone, each of them pivotal in keeping UIU's offense cool while generating a fresh opportunity for the Bulldog offense the other way.

By the end of the game, Katona stood 6'6" tall as the team's leading scorer with 23 points on a sharp 10-15 effort from the field. Blair was close behind with 18 points of his own to go with three assists. Two Bulldogs tied at 10 points to round out UMD's double-digit scoring list. Strong's came on a 3-6 effort from the field (a 2-3 mark from deep) to go with three assists. Andrews' was just a board shy of a double double with nine rebounds being added to his tally, along with three assists of his own. And Brown was simply all over the court tonight: eight points, five total blocks and 10 boards jumped off the page on his statline. 

The Peacocks were led by Reid, who landed a double-double of 18 points (on 6-12 shooting) and 13 rebounds in this one. Jones closed with 10 points on a 4-6 effort from the field. Jake Hilmer had nine points, eight rebounds and 10 total assists.

WORDS FROM WIECK

Speaking of Jake Hilmer… there's more of a conversation to be had there. 

The senior guard and NSIC South Player of the Year came into this game averaging 22 points, a conference leading mark. To hold him to just eight points on a night is no small feat- but the Bulldogs pulled it off anyways.

If you're looking for a sparkplug behind that defensive effort, UMD head coach Justin Wieck points you in the direction of Brown- just another thing to add to his resume on this night.

"(Jake's) a heck of a player- he's scored a ton of points in this league," Wieck said. "Joshua Brown did a great job on him all night- he really took the challenge… pretty much, when (Jake Hilmer) was in the game, JB was in the game trying to dog him, and for the most part did a great job. It was a team effort, but I've got to give a lot of credit to JB."

Shifting the conversation from one of the NSIC's best shooters to another, let's talk about Blair.

The redshirt-senior guard's huge second half was a massive supplement for the Bulldogs' defense to help get the job done for UMD on Sunday. It was a rebound of an effort from a first half thay saw Blair close with just one point. At the end of the day… shooter's shoot. And Blair's a pretty good shooter. Wieck understands the reality of this.

"Well, (Blair's) a gamer, and sometimes he takes some shots where we kind of scratch our heads, but at the same time, you've got to let him play, because he can make some of those, and he made some of those big ones down the stretch," Wieck said. "Myself and our whole team have a ton of confidence in him. He was struggling early, but when you've got a guy like that that's almost scored 2000 points, you've got to let him go."

All-told, though, when discussing UMD's offensive effort on Sunday, Wieck felt as if- knows, really- that his team has more in the tank. Countless efforts shooting above 50% and/or closing with 80+ prove this point pretty well. At the same time… it's tournament season, folks. "Survive and advance" is the name of the game, and the Bulldogs did just that. Besides, the very fact that Wieck's so confident in his club to begin with, that he knows it's capable of more, isn't a terrible sign- and that's a trust the group has earned. 

"Wasn't our prettiest offensive game, but at this time of the season, you're playing teams that are fighting for their season, and it's gonna be a grind," Wieck said. "I'm proud of these guys- they stuck together. They've really come on these last three or four weeks, and we're playing our best basketball right now.'

UP NEXT

UMD is set to take on Northern State in the NSIC Tournament Semifinals on Monday, Feb. 27. Tip-off is marked for 4:30 p.m.