Box Score MORRIS, Minn. - Minnesota-Morris (5-1) would pick up a victory Friday night beating Presentation College (8-3) 57-48.  The Cougars were well-balanced on offense with RJ Dean leading the way with 13 points, Neil Helgeson added 11 and both Brendon Foss and Evan Reller each ended with 9 points apiece. Reller would also have 17 rebounds which would be a career high.
 
Dean would get the Cougars underway with a 3 pointer from the corner on their first possession.  Presentation would be held scoreless for the first three minutes before finally getting on the board with a quick bucket.  Foss hit a 3 pointer, got fouled and converted the free throw for the 4 point play extending Morris's lead to 11-4.  Helgeson earned an easy two points when a Saints player would tip the ball in the basket on a pass to Reller giving the Cougars a 19-12 lead.  
 
With just over 8 minutes to play in the first half the Cougars would hold a 24-12 lead over the Saints. Since the tip in basket, Morris went on a 9-1 run pushing their lead to 28-13 before the Saints would score again.  The Saints would then begin their own run, outscoring UMM 7-0 before the Cougars would call a timeout with the score at 28-20. 
 
Morris would go into the half with a 30-22 lead, led by Dean with 7 points.  The Cougars would hold the Saints scoreless on all of the five 3 point attempts and making 4 of their 13 points helping them jump out to the 8 point lead.
 
Cougars would again strike first in the second half, scoring the first 4 points of the half, after Foss made both free throws, then on a second-chance basket Tyler Pendleton would make a mid-range jumper making the lead 34-22.  The Saints would slowly battle back into the closing to within nine at 37-28 game with 13 minutes to play.  
 
A missed 3 attempt by Presentation led to a put back basket to make cut it to 7 points.  Back to back buckets by John Haseman would give the Cougars a 10 point lead with 11 minutes to be played but the Saints would battle back into the game making it 45-40 after trailing 45-36.  Presentation then went on 12-3 run to tie the game up at 48, with 4 minutes remaining in the game.  After a scoreless few minutes, Dean converted a pair of free throws with 2:46 to play to put the Cougars back up 50-48 before the Saints would use a timeout.  The Cougars would hold on to win the game with converting on their free throws when it mattered.
 
Minnesota-Morris will be back in action on Monday night as they travel to Carleton College with tip off at 7 pm. 
 
By Zach Bidwell