MORRIS, Minn. – Minnesota Morris (7-10, 5-1 UMAC) had five players score in double digits and the team shot 53.7% from the field in the game as they pulled away from North Central (8-9, 3-3 UMAC) 78-61. RJ Dean scored his 1,000^th career point on the night. Dean and Neil Helgeson led the Cougars with 14 points.
 
Joe Roggenbuck added 13 points and seven rebounds while John Haseman came off the bench to score 12 points on 6-8 shooting. The Cougars out rebounded the Rams 40-26 on the night. Both teams shot well from distance, Morris was 7-15 from three and North Central finished the night 9-19.
 
The Rams came out firing in the opening minutes of the game taking an 11-4 lead after four minutes of play. UMM struck back with an 8-2 run cutting the lead to one a couple minutes later. Morris would take the lead on a Haseman layup and extended it on a three pointer from Cody Emrick moments later.
 
North Central would recapture the lead at 18-17 but it would be their last lead of the game. The Cougars would go on a 7-0 run and take a 24-18 lead. The lead would get as large as ten, coming with a minute to play. The Morris bench outscored the Rams bench 12-4 in the first half helping UMM take a 34-26 lead into the break.
 
The Rams cut the lead to five on a couple occasions in the second half but Morris kept countering. A quarter of the way into the second half UMM led by 13, 46-33. With the lead at 11 the Rams got back-to-back three's from Josh High to cut the lead UMM lead to five. It would be the closest North Central would get as Morris went on a 24-9 run over the next nine minutes to ice the game. The Cougars held the Rams to just four made baskets in the final 9:40 of the game to pull away.
 
The Cougars will now host Northwestern in a showdown tomorrow at 5 p.m. A win by Morris would put them in a tie with the Eagles at the midway point of the UMAC schedule.