ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris men's basketball team stayed undefeated in UMAC play, fending off a Crown College run in the final minutes and coming away with a 72-65 win over the Polars on the road on Saturday. The victory lifts the Cougars to 7-4 (3-0 UMAC) on the season.
Tied at 6-6 after five minutes of play, Minnesota Morris landed the first big blow of the game with a 13-0 run over the next four minutes to go on top, 19-6.
Corbyn Alexander supplied the final seven points of the run. Shortly after that,
Jaret Johnson and
Tarik Iyob connected on consecutive three-pointers as the Minnesota Morris lead grew to 25-9 midway through the half. Crown fought back into it late in the first half and cut the UMN Morris advantage to 36-29 at the break.
In the opening three minutes of the second half, a pair of
Ian Carlin baskets helped Minnesota Morris re-establish a double-digit lead at 42-30. Crown answered back with a 6-0 run, however, and closed to within a point, 49-48, with more than 11 minutes to play. A personal 7-0 run from Iyob pushed the Cougar lead back to eight, but the Polars refused to go away and ended up tying the game at 61-61 at the six-minute mark.
Crown had two chances to take its first lead since early in the first half but came up empty on both opportunities. Johnson then canned a triple with less than five minutes to play and Alexander followed with a pair of free throws before hitting a mid-range jumper to push the Minnesota Morris edge back to seven, 68-61. The Polars got it back to within five at the one-minute mark, but the Cougar defense held them from there and
Noah Kannegiesser iced the game with four free throws in the final 10 seconds.
Johnson ended the day with a team-high 15 points, hitting 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Iyob came off the bench to score 13, as did Alexander with an all-around performance of 11 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Kannegiesser also reached double-figures with 10.
Minnesota Morris returns to James Gremmels Court next weekend for a pair of UMAC contests. First up is Northland College on Jan. 13 beginning at 5:30 p.m.
