UMC Men’s Basketball comes up short at Winona State

The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Men’s Basketball team was defeated at Winona State, who rolled to an 80-64 win after a strong second half Friday night.

FIRST HALF –
The first half was overall competitive, but Winona State set the tone early by taking a 9-4 lead. Shots by Jordan Mitchell and Chandler Meeks over the next few minutes tied the score at 9, where it would stay until the 15 minute mark in the half. Winona State’s Tyler Mason hit a three to give them the lead, but a Mitchell layup kept UMC within a point. The teams traded buckets until the 11:10 mark, then Winona State make it a 2 possession game with.a layup at the 10:37 mark. UMC continues to keep it close, but the Warriors kept answering to maintain their lead. Over the next four minutes, Winona State scored 7 in a row to make it 27-20 UMC followed that up with a 7-0 run of their own to knot it at 27. Winona State made a couple threes, which were answered by a UMC three and layup to make it 33-32 Warriors. Christian Bowne-Webb made a floater to give UMC a 1-point lead with under a minute to go, but a late free throw and layup gave the Warriors a 36-34 lead at the half.

SECOND HALF –
It was an 11-2 run for Winona State spanning the first three and a half minutes to start the second half, as they took a 47-36 lead. Both teams went scoreless for the next two minutes before a pair of Winona State free throws extended the lead by 2 more. The Golden Eagles answered that with a Jordan Mitchell floater to cut the Warriors’ lead to 49-36. The Warriors scored 6 more in a row to make it 55-38, but UMC’s Christian Bowen-Webb made 3-pointer to end the run and put the score at 55-41 for Winona State. The Golden Eagles started to claw back with a couple of big shots from Andrew Stokes, which made the score 58-46. The Golden Eagles would start to find rhythm offensively in the latter stages of the half, but Winona State kept them at arms length with big three point shots. With 6:37 left in the game, Winona State held a 68-52 lead. The Golden Eagles would finish strong, but the Warriors were unstoppable on offense over the final few minutes, as they coasted to an 80-64 victory.

UMC is now 3-12 on the season and will play Minnesota State-Mankato Saturday afternoon.