UMC MEN’S BASKETBALL’S DEFENSE STRUGGLES IN 102-94 LOSS AT UPPER IOWA

The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) Men’s Basketball’s offense was solid, but their defense struggled in a 102-94 loss to the Upper Iowa Peacocks in a Northern Sun Conference game played in Fayette, Iowa.  

First Half –
UMC had a great start to the game and took an 8-2 lead in the first 90 seconds of the game. The run started with a Brian Sitzman (Soph. Savage) three-pointer, and after an Upper Iowa dunk, the Golden Eagles answered with a Malcolm Cohen (Sr. Detroit, MI) three-pointer, and a Javier Nicolau (Sr. Castellon, Spain) dunk for the 8-2 lead. Upper Iowa slowly chipped away at UMC’s lead, and five minutes later, the Peacocks took a 17-16 lead. The rest of the half was an entertaining back-and-forth battle. The teams were tied at 19 when Upper Iowa made back-to-back three-pointers, but UMC answered with a Harrison Cleary (Sr. Oak Creek, Wis) three-pointer which was followed with a Reed Miller (Fresh. Appleton, Wis) basket and another Cleary three-pointer to cap an 8-0 run and the Golden Eagles led 27-25 with 8:29 left in the half. Upper Iowa tied the game with a basket before UMC started another run when Cleary scored five straight points (three-pointer and two free throws). The Peacocks battled back with five straight points to tie the game at 32. The Golden Eagles led 36-34 when Upper Iowa went on a 7-0 run over two minutes and took a 41-36 lead with two minutes remaining in the half. The teams exchanged baskets the rest of the half, and Cleary made a shot at the buzzer, and Upper Iowa took a 45-42 lead into halftime.  Half of UMC’s points were scored by Cleary as he turned in a solid 20 minutes, making seven of 12 shots and 3 of 6 three-points and all four of his free throw attempts.
Both teams shot over 46 percent in the half, and UMC made 5 of 11 three-point attempts. The biggest difference in the first half stats was Upper Iowa had 23 bench points compared to UMC’s seven, and the Peacocks had 11 fastbreak points compared to UMC’s one. Both teams had three turnovers in the half, but Upper Iowa turned the three Golden Eagle turnovers into seven points. “We had some resiliency in the first half,” noted UMC head coach Dan Weisse. “They made us pay in transition, but they score in bunches, but I thought we fought back after each one of those.”

Second Half –
Upper Iowa came out red-hot in the second half and went on a10-3 lead to take a 55-45 lead over two minutes into the half. UMC’s Nicolau stopped the run with a basket (he also scored the first three Golden Eagle points in the half) and after an Upper Iowa basket, Cleary made a basket and Cohen added two free throws to get within a 57-51 deficit. Upper Iowas answered with five straight points to take an 11 point lead with 15 minutes left in the game. The teams exchanged points for the next five minutes and with UMC trailing by 10 points (76-66) the Golden Eagles went on a 10-2 run with five points by Tyrese Shines (Fresh. La Grange, IL) and after an Upper Iowa basket, Cleary drove the lane and, was double-teamed and kicked the pass out to a wide-open Zac Olson (Soph. Waterville) for a three-pointer which was followed by a Cohen layup to get within a 78-76 deficit with 7:20 left in the first half. Right when UMC looked like they were poised to take the lead, their inability to cover the Upper Iowa shooters came back to haunt them as the Peacocks answered with a 9-2 run with three three-pointers to take an 84-78 lead. Upper Iowa held the lead the rest of the way as they hit their free throws for a 102-94 victory. “Trying to get a silver lining I thought we competed in this game,” summarized Weisse. “We needed to get stops. There’s no question that’s the story of the game. We couldn’t stop them. With that said they tried to run us out of the gym and we wouldn’t let them do that. I am proud of the effort tonight. We need to control the controllable. We want to get back to basics and be back to being a team.”

UMC drops to 8-10 overall and 4-8 in the NSIC and will host the University of Mary on Friday.  Upper Iowa improves to 11-7 overall and 8-4 in the NSIC.