Moorhead, Minn.- UMD men's basketball evened its season record against No. 19 MSU Moorhead on Friday, defeating the Dragons 87-69 in what was a commanding effort from start to finish. The win pushes the Bulldogs' overall record to 16-7, their in-conference standing to 12-5. The loss kicks Moorhead's NSIC mark down to 13-4. That currently leaves Northern State, UMD's opponent on Saturday, alone at the top of the conference at 14-3. 

The opening minutes of this one gave us a look at what was to come. By the 16:37 mark of the first half, UMD already found itself up seven at a score of 11-4. But the nationally touted Dragons wouldn't be defeated so easily. In fact, an ensuing 11-2 Moorhead run suddenly left UMD itself trailing at a score of 15-13. This didn't last all that long, though- A Charlie Katona three less than two minutes later put the Bulldogs back out on top 20-17. Everything you just read happened in a span of less than eight minutes- there was still 12:52 left in the first half by this point. 

What followed was, relative to this game's standards, a bit of a scoring drought. It'd be over two minutes until the next basket was scored, that being a Gabe Myren bucket to put the Dragons within just a point at 20-19 with 10:24 to go. The next two minutes and change saw something just a little bit different than a drought: a full-on rainstorm of buckets from the Bulldogs. Good timing, right? By the 7:54 mark, UMD had secured the game's first double-figure lead at 29-19. Once the Bulldogs re-established such a lead at a score of 33-22 with 5:48 remaining, their hold wouldn't dip below two digits the rest of the half. Instead, UMD hit a new-game high advantage of 19 at just the right time, bringing a 43-24 score into the break. 

There's much to be impressed by on UMD's statsheet through 20 minutes in this one. Take the fact that the Bulldogs shot 19-32 as a team in the half as an example. Or maybe that defensively, UMD held Moorhead to just a 9-33 shooting effort. Add those two factors together, and the 19-point lead starts to make a lot of sense. But it's one name that really pops off of the page more so than anything else: Charlie Katona. It was only halftime, but the junior forward had already put on nothing short of a clinic. In 20 minutes (and he played all 20 of them), Katona tallied 21 points. He did it on 9-10 shooting from the field. It doesn't stop there, either- chuck in seven rebounds and two assists, for good measure. 

As if it would happen any other way, it was Katona that opened the scoring for UMD in the second half to push the team's lead to 21 at 45-24. A Jack Middleton three-ball at the 17:35 mark to make it 52-30 UMD would cement the Bulldog lead at 20+ for quite some time- try nearly 17-consecutive minutes. That's right, for almost the entirety of the second half, the Bulldogs were up big. UMD's advantage even hit a peak of 30 off of a Katona free-throw with 5:57 on the clock to make it 82-52. Credit to the Dragons- they never stopped fighting. Moorhead would do good work in the final five minutes and change to chip at this lead, even after it had reached its apex. From the 82-52 mark until the final buzzer, Moorhead went on a 17-5 run. Still, though… the damage had been done. UMD walked out of Moorhead with a massive 87-69 victory.

Two Bulldogs put up double-digit efforts with eerily similar statlines in the second frame. One was Joshua Brown, who tallied 15 points on 5-6 shooting to go with three rebounds. Right behind Brown was Middleton, who registered 13 points on, well, 5-6 shooting to go with two rebounds. As a team, UMD shot as well as ever, going 15-27 from the field in the half. 

All-told, it was Katona that stood above the rest in the scoring race on Friday. The junior guard finished with 30 points. That wasn't just a game-high, nor just a season-high- it's the highest mark Katona's hit in his career. And he did it in style, those points coming on a resounding 12-14 effort from the field. As if you could ask for much more, Katona also led the team in rebounds with nine and tied for the team-lead in assists with four. The other Bulldog to tally four assists was Lincoln Meister, which was, fittingly, a career-best for him. 

There were three other members of UMD's double-digit club on Friday. Middleton made it in with 17 points on 7-11 shooting. Brown finished with 15 on 5-6 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Blair rounded out the membership with 12 points on 5-10 shooting.

Moorhead was led by Lorenzo McGhee, who potted 15 points on 5-8 shooting. Jacob Beeninga had 11 points, much of that coming on a 5-6 effort from the line. Logan Kinsey finished the game with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. 

WORDS FROM WIECK: 

So many factors go into a team's performance on a given night. Just as this can sometimes make it difficult to pinpoint what exactly went so right for a team in a victory, it makes it hard to isolate what went wrong in defeat. 

UMD entered Friday's rematch against Moorhead well aware of how the last matchup between the two teams went down- the question would be what the Bulldogs would do differently to achieve a better outcome. There's likely a sea of X's and O's answers that UMD head coach Justin Wieck could have provided as to what things the team focused on leading to this game, but his attention was dedicated to something a little different: mindset. After-all, it does make sense- how dialed-in you are can certainly have a direct effect on more tangible stats. That's something Wieck bore witness to on Friday. 

"I really challenged our guys this week in our preparation," Wieck said. "Challenged them to play with the kind of hunger and intensity we expect. They were not happy with how (MSU Moorhead) beat us last month, and our focus was phenomenal tonight."

Speaking of intensity… welcome back to the stage, Katona. 

It was really a perfect storm for the junior guard tonight. There's no doubting his talent- he won NSIC Player of the Week earlier this season for a reason. But on Friday, Katona had something else going for him- he was a perfect fit within Wieck's scheme. Add those two things together, and apparently, the result is a 30-burger. 

"Charlie was electric tonight," Wieck said. "Our focus was to attack inside early and often, and we love what Charlie can do in the post. We played big tonight at times with him running our PG position too. He's so versatile in how he can affect the game, and tonight he was at his best."

UMD entered this game coming off of a tough home loss last Saturday. Instead of dragging their feet, though, the Bulldogs secured a huge ranked road victory that could easily springboard them forward the rest of the way. But it's important to not look too far ahead- you've got to take it game by game. Wieck said it best:

"It's a big confidence boost for our guys," Wieck said. "We know what we are capable of on a nightly basis. This is a big win, but the games keep getting bigger and bigger from here on out. Saturday night will be no exception."