The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) Men’s Basketball team finally got some action in as they defeated Hamline University of St. Paul 73-54 this afternoon on the Gary Senske Court in Crookston.
UMC had a great start to the game and started on an 18-2 run led by Brian Sitzman’s seven points. UMC held off a Hamline run and took a 39-27 lead into halftime.
Hamline would get their deficit down to single digits in the second half when they trailed 41-34 less than five minutes into the second half, but UMC responded with an 8-0 run with three points from Leonard Dixon, a Ron Kirk Jr. three pointer, and a Nathaniel Powell dunk for a 49-34 lead with 12:21 left in the game. The teams would play even the rest of the way and UMC held on for a 73-54 victory.
It was a good effort on both ends of the court for the Golden Eagles who were led on the offensive side by Leonard Dixon (Jr-Damascus, Oregon) with a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Zach Westpahl (Sr-West Fargo, N.D.) added 14 points and newcomer, Uzo Dibiamaka (Soph- Adelaide, Australia) who put 11 points in his debut. UMC coach Dan Weise had to be pleased with the defense of his team allowing just 27 points in each half!! UMC outrebounded Hamline 46-34, had 27 points off the bench to two for Hamline. UMC will have one more exhibition game before the schedule becomes ‘real’ as they’ll host Mayville State on Thursday at 6:00 PM.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Hamline | 27 | 27 | 54 |
| Crookston | 39 | 34 | 73 |
| For UMC | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Leonard Dixon | 16 | 10 | |
| Zach Westpahl | 14 | ||
| Uzo Dibiamaka | 11 | 3 assists | |
| Brian Sitzmann | 8 | 3 | 2 assists |
| Zen Goodridge | 6 | 7 | |
| Sam Tiley | 6 | 3 | |
| Ethan Channel | 5 | 4 | 5 assists |
| Ron Kirk | 3 | ||
| Jerome Maby | 2 | ||
| Nathaniel Powell | 2 | 6 | 2 assists |
