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Derek Schmidt v. Mayville State, 12/10/10

Men's Basketball

Vikings Pull Away In Second Half, Top Cougar Men

Vikings Pull Away In Second Half, Top Cougar Men

Derek Schmidt scored in double figures for the fourth time in five games.
Box Score

Valley City, N.D. – A close first half got away from the Minnesota Morris men's basketball team in the second this evening (Dec. 7), as they fell 78-54 on the road to Valley City State in non-conference action.

Recently it has been the second half where the Cougars make their push, but tonight the Cougars found themselves within one midway through the first before the Vikings turned up the heat to pull away.

Valley City State (7-4) opened the game on a 8-to-0 run, keeping the Cougars (1-4) off the board until the 16:54 mark when Derek Schmidt opened the UMM scoring with a pair of free throws. Morris proceeded to get hot and after an Evan Reller score, found themselves down just one at 15-14 after his bucket at the 11:02 mark.

Undaunted, Valley City State went on their second 8-to-0 run of the first period, going up 23-14, before Brendon Foss got the Cougars back in the scoring column with 7:41 left to play.

Schmidt, Reller and Foss finished at the Cougars scoring leaders with 14, nine and eight points respectively, each also posting their second highest scoring games of the year.

The Cougars shot and impressive 62% (21-of-44) from the field in the first half, but were matched step-by-step by the Vikings who countered with a 58% (15-of-26) mark of their own.

Schimdt and Zach Meyer teamed up to get the Cougars back within five in the first minute of the second, but the Vikings responded to go up by 10 less than two minutes later and would lead by double digits the rest of the way.

The Cougars finished .477 from the field, one of their best marks on the young season, but woes at the free throw line continue to plague them as they went just 9-of-13 on the night, including a struggle to just get to the line in a 2-of-3 first half.

With a losing skid that now stretches to four games, they will look to get back in the win column on Friday (Dec. 9) when they host Mayville State in a rematch of their game on Nov. 29, where the Comets won 72-71, holding off a furious second half Cougar comeback. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
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