52 POINT SECOND HALF LEADS MSU-MOORHEAD PAST UMC MEN’S BASKETBALL

The University of Minnesota Crookston Men’s basketball team turned the ball over 22 times and the Minnesota State Moorhead (MSUM) Dragons turned them into easy points to fuel a 52 point second half on their way to a 91-68 victory in a game played on Gary Senske court at Lysaker Gymnasium in Crookston.

FIRST HALF
UMC had a great start and scored the first six points of the game with Ethan Channel (Jr. Beaverton, OR) scoring four points and Ibu Jassey Demba (Sr. Birmingham, England) added a basket for a quick 6-0 lead.  MSUM settled in and battled back to tie the game at 10 a little over eight minutes into the game.  UMC regained the lead on a George Blaj-Voinescu (Jr. Brasov, Romania) basket before MSUM answered with a three-pointer to take their first lead of the game with 10:38 left in the half.  The teams battled back-and-forth with the Dragons building a 22-14 lead with less than nine minutes left before UMC stormed back on an 11-0 run sparked by back-to-back three-pointers from Josh Dilling (Fresh. Oshkosh, Wis), a Leonard Dixon (Jr. Damascus, OR) dunk which he followed with a three-pointer and the Golden Eagles had a 25-22 lead with less than seven minutes left in the half. “We played a pretty good game offensively and were playing well in the first half,” said UMC Coach Dan Weisse. “I liked the way our offense was going at that point, but we need to be a little more consistent.” The teams were tied four times, with the last tie at 32 before UMC regained the lead with a Georges Darwiche (Jr. Bucharest, Romania) three-pointer.  MSUM scored the next seven points before UMC’s Dixon finished the first-half scoring with a layup with 1:13 remaining and the Dragons took a 39-37 lead into halftime.  “We got into a little bit of foul trouble and that hurt us a bit,” said Coach Wiesse. “We had 11 turnovers in the first half and we want less than that in the entire game, so that wasn’t good.”

SECOND HALF
MSUM came out red hot to start the second half as they made four three-pointers in the first three-plus minutes of the half to build a 53-43 lead. UMC slowly battled back and trailed 62-56 after four straight points from Channel with 10:07 left to get within a 62-56 deficit.  MSUM took advantage of several UMC turnovers, including two that were turned into fastbreak dunks and the Dragons coasted to a 91-68 victory. “They had 22 fastbreak points and most of those were off the turnovers,” said Coach Weisse. “That is what is going to keep me up tonight.  We didn’t give ourselves a very good chance to win.”  MSUM shot 69 percent (18 of 26) from the field in the second half and 58 percent (7 of 12) on three-pointers.  UMC shot 52 percent (29 of 56) in the game.  “I don’t know if I have ever seen a team shoot 52 percent and lose the game by 23 points,” said Coach Wiesse. “When you turn the ball over 22 times that is what happens.  We didn’t take care of the ball and they had a lot of easy points.  It is something we will have to do better tomorrow.”

UMC drops to 1-2 on the year and 0-1 in the NSIC North.  MSUM improves to 1-2 on the year and 1-0 in the NSIC North. The teams will play at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and you can hear the game on KROX Radio.