ASHLAND, Wis. – After going into the halftime in a tie game, a fast start to the second half from the University of Minnesota Morris men's basketball team paved the way to the team's first victory of the season, a 77-66 road decision over Northland College. The Cougars improve to 1-2 on the season (1-2 UMAC) heading into the home opener on Monday night.

Dillon Haider ended with a game-high 24 points and he almost single-handedly kept the Cougars close early on. Haider had 13 of UMN Morris' first 15 points in the opening five minutes of the game, though Northland was able to take its largest lead of the day at 16-12 during that stretch. A Haider three-pointer and a pair of rim finishes from Pal Dak were part of a 9-0 response from the Cougars to make it 21-16. Minnesota Morris would go on to lead by as much as six in the first half, but the Lumberjacks got back level by halftime at 37-37.

Jaret Johnson tallied the first five points for UMN Morris in the second half and his three-pointer at the 18:23 mark would give the Cougars the lead for good. Kenneth Riley extended the lead with a triple a couple minutes later. With the score 45-42 in favor of Minnesota Morris, a 10-2 burst keyed by six points from Pal Dak made it 55-44 with just under 11 minutes to play. 

The lead hovered near there much of the way after that, with an and-one layup from Corbyn Alexander giving the Cougars their largest lead at 67-53 with 6:10 to play. Northland got no closer than nine points after that and Haider slammed the door shut on the Lumberjacks by scoring the final eight points for UMN Morris on the day.

Other than Haider's big scoring day, Johnson had 14 points and nine rebounds and Ian Carlin tacked on 11 points and seven boards. Pal Dak came off the bench for 12 points.

Minnesota Morris will finally make its home debut on Monday night, hosting the University of Northwestern at Jim Gremmels Court at 7 p.m.