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Cougar Basketball wraps up the regular season this weekend heading to St. Scholastica on Friday, Feb. 18 and Northland on Saturday, Feb. 19.
Things tip-off at 5:30 on Friday and 3:00 on Saturday, with the women taking the court first and the men following right after. Fans can follow along from St. Scholastica with live stats here. And as always check back with UMMCougars.org for the complete recap each night.
The women have already locked up their second consecutive UMAC championship, after their thrilling 53-52 win over Northwestern last weekend.
In their first meetings this season the Cougars (17-6, 12-0) beat St. Scholastica (9-14, 6-6) 66-56, a night after their 57-47 win over Northland (13-10, 7-5).
Already the first back-to-back conference champion since Presentation in 2006 and 2007, this weekend the Cougars have a chance to close out a perfect conference season and finish 14-0. They can also extend their UMAC winning streak to 27 straight games, a run that started after their last trip to Ashland as Northland was the last UMAC team to beat Morris.
Furthermore, Emily Mehr can close out the conference season as the league champion in field goal percentage as she currently leads with a mark of .540, after finishing fourth in the category last season. Brandi Cresap is also blazing the field in assist-turnover ratio with a staggering 10.6 against UMAC opponents. The only thing lower than Cresap's turnover mark is the temperature outside the P.E. Center, as they senior has a mere five in conference play.
Steph Roggenbuck is currently scoring at a 19.1 clip in league play while pulling down 7.4 rebounds per game, and heading into the final weekend is the only player in the top-five in both categories.
After a disappointing set of games last weekend, the men are still in the driver's seat for a home playoff game on Wednesday. (It cannot be said, however, that they control their own destiny, because destiny – by definition – is uncontrollable).
With two wins this weekend the Cougar men (12-11, 8-4) will lock up second place in the UMAC standings. They are currently tied with Bethany Lutheran in second, but with two wins over the Vikings already, Morris holds the tiebreaker, meaning if they stay tied BLC comes to UMM on Wednesday to open the tournament.
Northland (3-20, 1-11) is the only team mathematically out of the tournament, and was the beneficiary of the Cougars most dominating UMAC win, an 89-51 decision earlier this season. St. Scholastica (9-14, 6-6) was equally receptive to the Cougars generosity, as they accepted Morris' biggest comeback of 2010-11, a 17-to-1 stretch run of the Cougars 73-68 win in late January.
The Saints will also playing for a potential home game, as they currently sit in fourth in the league standings.
With a Cougar-like weekend on the scoreboard UMM can finish as they league scoring champion, as they currently lead all teams in points scored against UMAC teams. They also are the current UMAC leader in rebounds and can also finish the UMAC season as the best team on the boards.
Milestones, tournament berths and statistical championships are all on the line as the Morris men's and women's basketball take the court this weekend.
