The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Men’s Basketball team exploded for 48 first-half points to build a big halftime lead and held on the rest of the way for a 72-58 victory over the University of Mary Marauders in a game played in Bismarck, North Dakota. In the game, Josh Dilling (Fresh. Oshkosh, Wis) had a career-high 27 points and Leonard Dixon (Jr. Demascus, OR) turned in a career-high 23 points to lead the Golden Eagles. Another item of note was Tyrese Shines (Soph. LaGrange, IL) making his season debut, playing 13 minutes.
FIRST HALF
UMC missed their first shot of the game, but Dilling grabbed the offensive rebound, and a few seconds later Ibu Jassey-Demba (Sr. Birmingham, England) made a three-pointer and that gave the Golden Eagles an early spark. The spark ignited a 15-3 run to start the game. Dilling added a layup and after a Mary three-pointer, UMC responded with a Brian Sitzmann (Jr. Savage) three-pointer, Dixon followed with a three, Dilling added two free throws and Sitzmann ended the run with a layup for a 15-3 lead over four minutes into the game.
UMC continued to build on the lead and finished the half on a 5-0 run with a Dilling basket, which was followed by another three-pointer from Dixon and the Golden Eagles led 48-26. UMC shot 58 percent (18-31) from the field and 50 percent (7-14) from three-point range in the half. “We played really well in the first half,” said UMC Coach Dan Weisse. “With Ethan (Channel) being out, Josh and Leonard really stepped up tonight.”
SECOND HALF
Mary came out strong in the second half with a 21-6 run to get within a 54-47 deficit with nine minutes left in the game. UMC finally settled down and Dilling and Leonard combined for a 10-0 run over two-plus minutes to build a 64-47 lead. The teams played even the rest of the way and the Golden Eagles won the game 72-58, to pick up a big road conference win. One stat of note was that Mary’s top player, Matthew Kreklow was held to 11 points and 2 rebounds. “I thought Ibu and Brian played very well defensively,” said Coach Weisse. “Now we have to give the same effort tomorrow.”
UMC improves to 2-7 overall and 1-6 in the NSIC North and will look to sweep the weekend series on Saturday night. Mary drops to 3-6 overall and 3-4 in the NSIC North.
| 1 | 2 | Score | |
| UMC | 48 | 24 | 72 |
| Mary | 26 | 32 | 58 |
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