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Box Score
Ashland, Wis. – The Minnesota Morris men's basketball team closed out the regular season with an 88-74 road win over host Northland tonight (Feb. 19).
The win gives Morris (14-11, 10-4 UMAC) their best conference mark since the 2004-05, 11-win championship team. It also the first time all season that the Cougars have charted consecutive road victories on back-to-back nights. The only other time the Cougars finished with consecutive road wins was the opening weekend of the season, with the wins coming two nights apart.
The LumberJacks (3-22, 1-13 UMAC) were the only team to enter the weekend out of UMAC Tournament contention. Tonight, they shot a red hot 56% (29-of-53) from the field, but hit just one three-pointer all night, while the Cougars thrived behind the arc with 10 in the game.
Eric Dalbey (Mora, Minn.) had his best game of the season, leading all players with 25 points on a 5-of-10 shooting night, all from long range. He also went 10-of-11 at the free throw line on the night, as the Cougars shot a UMAC high 37.
Dalbey was one of four Cougars in double-figures as he was joined by Derek Schmidt (East Grand Forks, Minn.) with 17, Dan Fragodt with 13 and Tom Barrett (Red Lake, Minn.) with 10,
Dalbey opened the game with back-to-back threes and quickly the Cougars were up 6-0. A Fragodt lay-up at 15:12 gave the Cougars a 10-point lead for the first time, and at 9:04 they moved ahead by 20-points after a Barrett bucket.
The LumberJacks were abler to come all the way back within eight in the second half, after and Adrian Flores basket at the 4:52 mark made the score 35-27.
After taking a 10-point lead into halftime the Cougars worked their lead all the way to 16 before Northland whittled it all the way down to three at 68-65 with just 6:36 left to play. Morris answered with five straight – all from Dalbey – and were back up eight at 73-65, just 40 seconds later.
Northland would not get within five the rest of the way.
The Cougars will now return home to open the UMAC Tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 23, where they will host Bethany Lutheran at 7:30 p.m. The Cougars have beaten the Vikings twice this season, including a 78-59 win on Jim Gremmels Court.
