ELLENDALE, N.D. – The University of Minnesota Morris men's basketball team stepped away from UMAC play on Tuesday night and came away with an 86-79 win at Trinity Bible College. The Cougars improve to 9-7 overall on the season with the victory.

Despite hot shooting from Minnesota Morris, the game was too close for comfort in the late stages. After falling behind on Trinity Bible's first possession, Noah Kannegiesser knocked down a three-pointer and followed that up with another jumper to make it 5-2. He then added another triple a couple minutes later to give the Cougars a 10-8 advantage. 

An 8-0 run in the middle portion of the first half pushed the Minnesota Morris lead to 24-12. In the final minutes of the opening half, Kannegiesser, Jarrett Kujava, and Tarik Iyob all canned threes to increase the Cougar advantage to 43-29 at the half.

A Pal Dak three-pointer less than two minutes into the second half gave Minnesota Morris its largest lead of the night, 48-31. Trinity Bible had an 8-2 response to that deficit and the Lions refused to go away thanks in large part to the shooting of Khalil Bolden. Another Kujava three-pointer made it a 67-53 contest as the clock rolled under nine minutes remaining. Over the ensuing four minutes, Bolden accounted for all 17 of Trinity Bible's points, including five three-pointers. When Bolden's teammates finally got in on the act, the Cougar lead was sliced to 75-73 with nearly four minutes to go.

With Minnesota Morris still clinging to just a three-point lead with under a minute to go, Corbyn Alexander made a huge bucket for the Cougars to stretch the lead to five, 84-79. Following a missed three from Trinity Bible, Kannegiesser nabbed the rebound, was fouled, and made a pair at the line with less than 10 seconds remaining to seal it.

Kannegiesser led the way for the Cougars with 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting. Jaret Johnson and Ian Carlin joined him in double-figures with 10 points each.

Minnesota Morris comes home to James Gremmels Court on Saturday to host Crown College at 1 p.m. in the first game of a six-game home stand.