UMC MEN’S BASKETBALL SLOW START COSTLY IN LOSS TO MSU-MOORHEAD

The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) Golden Eagles Men’s Basketball team couldn’t contain the high-flying Minnesota State Moorhead Dragons in the first half and that proved to be the difference in a 78-62 loss in a game played at Lysaker Gymnasium in Crookston. 

FIRST HALF
MSUM jumped out to a 7-0 lead to set the tone for the rest of the first half. UMC scored their first points of the game when Ethan Channel (Beaverton, OR) made a three-pointer less than three minutes into the game, but MSUM answered with a 10-3 run to take a 17-6 lead.  “It was a tough start for us,” said UMC Coach Dan Weisse. “Moorhead is a team that will take advantage of any mistakes you make and they did tonight.”  UMC’s Quintin Winterfeldt stopped the run with a layup after a nice pass from Josh Dilling to get the deficit back to single-digits. MSUM continued their fantastic first half and went on a 15-4 run to take a 32-12 lead with 8:10 remaining in the half. The teams played even the rest of the way and MSUM took a 43-28 into halftime.   “The best offense we ran was in the last three minutes of the half because we were moving the ball,” said Coach Weisse. 
MSUM made 50 percent of their first-half shots going 16 of 32 from the field, while UMC made 11 of 28 shots for 39 percent.

SECOND HALF
UMC came out strong in the second half and after a MSUM free throw, Channel had a layup on a nice cut to the basket and a great pass from Brian Sitzmann (Jr. Savage). Channel followed with a basket on the next possession before Ibu Jassey-Demba (Sr. Whales) had a big two-hand dunk to bring the Golden Eagles within a 44-34 deficit.  “Ethan played well tonight,” said Coach Weisse. “He kept attacking the rim and it was great to see.  Leonard Dixon had a good game for us tonight too.” MSUM answered with a three-pointer to stop the UMC run and the Dragons slowly built on their lead the rest of the game and coasted to a 78-62 victory.  “We had 15 turnovers tonight and Moorhead turned them into 24 points, so that hurt us tonight,” said Coach Weisse. “We played a good second half, but we played two good halves this weekend and two bad halves.  We will keep working on getting better and get ready for next weekend.”

UMC drops to 1-3 on the season and 0-2 in the NSIC North and will travel to #6 ranked Northern State on Friday. MSUM improves to 2-2 on the year and 2-0 in the NSIC North.