UMC Men’s Basketball Gets Past Arkansas-Monticello

The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Men’s basketball team forced 16 turnovers and beat Arkansas-Monticello 68-58 despite shooting just 39% from the field in the NSIC/GAC Crossover game played at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

Arkansas-Monticello scored the first basket of the game on a dunk by Darnell Wright (Jr., Chicago, IL). Minnesota Crookston responded with nine-straight points thanks to Chase Knickerbocker (Sr., Annandale, MN) hitting a three-pointer before earning a lay-up plus the foul sending him to the free-throw line putting UMC head 9-2 with 16:24 left in the first half. Harrison Cleary’s (Jr., Oak Creek, WI) first points of the game came on a jump shot with 14:50 left in the half putting the Golden Eagles ahead 11-5. The Boll Weevil utilized a 10-2 run over the next four minutes to take a 15-13 lead with 10:32 left in the half. Minnesota Crookston followed the UAM run by scoring seven straight points to regain the lead with a Ben Juhl (Soph., Clive, IA) jumper giving the Golden Eagles a 20-15 lead with 6:29 left in the first half. The two teams traded baskets the rest of the first half with Minnesota Crookston taking a 30-29 lead into halftime.
Arkansas Monticello scored the first four points of the second half to take a 33-30 lead before Harrison Cleary scored at the rim pulling the Golden Eagles within one point before Josh Collins (Sr., Minneapolis) regained the lead for Minnesota Crookston with a tip-in putting UMC ahead 34-33 with 16:53 left in the game.  Back-to-back layups from Cleary and Collins one minute later gave the Golden Eagles a 39-35 lead with 14:58 remaining. A Josh Collins’ three-pointer grew the Minnesota Crookston lead to 42-37 with 13:32 left. Chase Johnson (R-Soph., La Crosse, WI) followed up his tip-in at the rim with a jump shot set up by a pass from Malcolm Cohen (R-Jr., Detroit, MI) giving the Golden Eagles a 46-38 lead with 10:39 left. UMC continued to pull away when Harrison Cleary hit a mid-range jump shot with 9:21 left pushed the Minnesota Crookston advantage to 48-30. Great ball movement with 8:30 to play allowed Cohen to make the extra-pass to Knickerbocker who buried a wide-open three-pointer giving the Golden Eagles a 51-40 lead. Leading 56-45 with under five minutes to play, Minnesota Crookston generated two extra possessions with a pair of offensive rebounds but were unable to add to their lead due to missed shots. An Arkansas-Monticello lay-up in transition with under four minutes to go cut the Boll Weevil deficit down to eight before Harrison Cleary answered with a three-pointer at the other end of the floor. Arkansas-Monticello continued to hand tough down the stretch pulling to within 62-55 with 1:18 remaining. Minnesota Crookston managed to break the Bool Weevil’s press out of the UAM timeout before Gable Smith (R-Sr., Lodi, WI) was fouled on his drive to the basket. Smith made both free throws with 0:56 remaining giving UMC a 64-55 lead. Cleary made a pair of free throws on the Golden Eagles next possession pushing Minnesota Crookston’s lead to 66-55. A Chase Knickerbocker dunk in the open-floor provided the final exclamation point of the afternoon to close out the Golden Eagles 68-58 win.

The Golden Eagles improve to 1-1 and return to the court on Wednesday when Minnesota Crookston hosts Oak Hill Christian College at Lysaker Gymnasium with a 7 p.m. tip-off and 6:30 p.m. Riverview Health Pregame show on KROX. Arkansas-Monticello falls to 0-2.