The Minnesota Morris men's and women's basketball teams begin the second round of conference play tonight (Feb. 1), on the road at Presentation.

The women start things off with a 5:30 p.m. tip-off, following by the men at 7:30 p.m.

After one trip through the schedule, the Cougar women sit comfortably in first place with a 7-0 league mark and a two-game cushion over Northwestern in second place. The UMM men, meanwhile, sit in a second place tie with Bethany Lutheran, with each team posting 5-2 UMAC records. Alone in first place on the men's side in Northwestern at 6-1, with the Eagles lone loss coming at the hands of the Cougars.

For Presentation, their men and women each enter the evening at 2-5 in league play, with the men sitting in fifth place, and the women in seventh. When the Cougars and Saints opened up conference action back on Feb. 11, the UMM women opened things up with a 79-68 win, but the men dropped a disappointing overtime loss at 83-78.

Riding an eight-game winning streak that dates back to that win over Presentation, the Cougar women have been paced by Steph Roggenbuck who is averaging 19.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in conference play. Roggenbuck is hitting nearly 58% of her shots from the floor, including 53% from long range, and has topped the 20-point mark five times.

Roggenbuck will be chasing the 1,000-point mark tonight as well, as she sits just four points away for her UMM career. Joining the Cougars after one season at the North Dakota State College of Science, Roggenbuck has averaged nearly 14 points per game in her three season's in maroon at gold.

Not to be out-done though is Brandi Cresap, who continues to extend her margin at the national leader in assist-turnover ratio. Cresap's mark is currently 5.71, well ahead of her closest competitor at 3.42. Through the last eight games, Cresap has been lights-out, with 41 assists against just five turnovers which included a five-game stretch where she never turned the ball over.

As a team the Cougars lead Division III in total assists, at nearly 20 a game, and in UMAC play lead the league at nearly 23 a game.

While the Cougar men have positioned themselves among the standing leaders halfway through, they have done it with balanced scoring as Steve Birman (15.7), Eric Dalbey (13.7), Dan Fragodt (11.0) and Derek Schmidt (10.6) all average double figures.

Winners of six of their past seven, the Cougar men have been able to get the victory in multiple ways. In their Jan. 28 win over Northland they took a big lead into halftime and were able to cruise in the second half, and in their Jan. 29 win over St. Scholastica they overcame a 13-point second half deficit and put together a 17-to-1 run over the last five minutes for the dramatic come-from-behind win.

There are just seven games left in the conference season, and begins it tonight with the Cougars on the road to face Presentation. Check back with UMMCougars.org for the full recap.