UMC MEN’S BASKETBALL’S FRANTIC COMEBACK FALLS SHORT IN MANKATO

The University of Minnesota Crookston Men’s Basketball failed to capitalize on a strong offensive performance and couldn’t complete a late comeback in a 93-90 loss to Minnesota State-Mankato in an NSIC game played at the Taylor Center in Mankato, Minnesota.

1st Half –
Minnesota Crookston started the game strong offensively with an Ibu Jassey-Demba (Jr., Birmingham, UK) jump shot followed by a three-pointer from Harrison Cleary (Sr., Oak Creek, WI) giving the Golden Eagles a 5-0 lead. Javier Nicolau (Sr., Castellon, Spain) finished a dunk through a foul, establishing a 7-2 lead with 17:47 left in the opening half. After Minnesota State pulled within 14-13, Malcolm Cohen (Sr., Detroit, MI) buried a triple increasing UMC’s lead to 17-13 with 14:00 left in the half. After the Mavericks pulled back within one point of their visitors, Minnesota Crookston used a 5-0 run to take a 26-20 lead. Malcolm Cohen added a second three-pointer with 6:41 to play in the first frame increasing the Golden Eagles’ lead to 38-26. Minnesota State responded with a 7-0 run to pull within 38-33. The hosts closed the first half on an 8-2 run trimming Minnesota Crookston’s lead to 45-44 at halftime.

2nd Half –
Minnesota State took its first lead at the start of the second half and continued its 6-0 run to end the first half turning it into a 13-0 run by the 17:40 mark of the second half giving the Mavericks a 51-45 lead. Harrison Cleary stopped the run with a jump shot trimming the Golden Eagles deficit down to 51-47. Cleary followed with a triple cutting MSU’s lead down to 51-50. Ibu Jassey-Demba made a three-pointer with under 15 minutes to play that was answered by back-to-back three-pointers from Minnesota State boosting the Mavericks’ lead to 61-53 with 14:00 to play. With 11 minutes left in the game, Malcolm Cohen made a jump shot through a foul added the free-throw to bring Minnesota Crookston within 66-62. Harrison Cleary added two free-throws to make it a one-possession game, but Minnesota State countered with a three taking a 69-64 lead. Minnesota Crookston tried to muster a late-run with Brian Sitzmann (R-Soph., Savage) made a three-pointer before Tyrese Shines (Fr., La Grange, IL) connected on a three-pointer bringing Minnesota Crookston within 81-76 with 3:52 to play. After MSU-Mankato scored an and-one lay-up, Harrison Cleary countered with a three-pointer bringing the Golden Eagles within 84-79 with 3:16 to go. Cleary added another triple with 2:05 to play bringing UMC within 85-82. After a Maverick’s lay-up, Cleary scored his third three-pointer in a row for UMC to make it a two-point game with 38-seconds left. Minnesota State made two free-throws to gain an 89-87 lead, but Cleary finished a lay-up at the other end, trimming the deficit back down to two with 14-seconds left. UMC fouled with 12-seconds left and after the first free-throw was made extending the lead back to three points, the second free-throw was missed, but an offensive rebound by the Mavericks closed the door on Minnesota Crookston’s comeback bid as the Golden Eagles fell 91-90.

Minnesota Crookston falls to 9-14 overall and 5-12 in conference play. The Golden Eagles return to the court on Saturday when UMC travels to Concordia-St. Paul for a 5:30 P.M. tip-off. MSU-Mankato improves to 12-11 overall and 10-7 in the NSIC.