Minnesota-Morris held of a stubborn Crown College team in a Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) men’s win Saturday at the P.E. Center.
As was the case earlier in the day in the Cougar women’s win over Crown College, the Cougar men started slow.
Brent Durensky (Sr. Barnesville, MN) scored on a pay-up two minutes into the game giving UMM a 5-0 lead.
After a basket by Kincade Kirkpatrick (Jr. Buffalo, MN) made it 5-2, Minnesota-Morris went on a 9-2 run capped off by a pair of free-throws by Phil Allen (So. Clarissa, MN) to give the Cougars a 14-4 lead with 12:07 left in the first half.
Crown answered with a 12-3 run to close to within one at 17-16 after Matt Bremer’s (So. Corvalis, OR) three with 7:57 left in the half.
A 15-4 run by Minnesota-Morris gave the Cougars a 12 point advantage at 32-20 on Chris Conley’s (Fr. Alexandria, MN) lay-up at 2:29 of the opening half.
Each team tallied three points to end the half and UMM led 35-27 at the break.
Both teams were as cold from the field as the weather outside in the first 20 minutes as Minnesota-Morris was 11-of-29 (37.9%) from the field, while Crown shot 31 percent (9-of-29).
The Cougars build their eight point half time advantage thanks in large part to a 12-of-17 (70.6%) effort at the free-throw line in the first half.
James Carr (Sr. Barnesville, MN) finished an old fashioned three-point play with a lay-up and free-throw at 16:01 to give UMM a double digit lead at 44-33.
Kevin Cunniff (Sr. Alexandria, MN) came up with an lay-up a short time later to put the Cougars up 46-33.
Crown cut the Cougar lead to single digits at 54-45 with just under 10 minutes to go in the game.
Carr drained a three from the top of the key as the Cougars scored five unanswered to take a 14 point lead at 59-45.
Minnesota-Morris led by as many as 17 in the second half at 76-59 and went on to the 15 point win.
The Cougars found their shooting touch in the second half hitting at a 56 percent (14-of-25) clip over the final 20 minutes.
For the game UMM was 25-of-54 (46.3%) and hit 26-of-33 at the line (78.8%).
Four players hit the double figure category for the Cougars led by Brendan McNally’s (Sr. Lindstrom, MN) game high 20. He now has 1,310 career points, 52 points away from 10th place on the all-time scoring list and former Cougar David Berntson who finished with 1,362 points.
James Carr and Phil Allen each had 13 and Steve Farmer (So. Fridley, MN) had 10.
Kevin Cunniff had a game high seven assists.
Minnesota-Morris (5-14, 3-6 UMAC) will play their final non-conference game of the season this Monday when they meet North central University at 7:30 in Minneapolis.
Newspaper Box Score Crown College vs University of Minnesota Morris 2/3/07 5:00 PM at Minnesota-Morris P.E. Center-Morris, MN At Minnesota-Morris P.E. Center-Morris, MN UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MORRIS 79, CROWN COLLEGE 64 CROWN COLLEGE (2-19, 0-11 UMAC) KINCADE KIRKPATRICK 6-19 7-9 19; MITCH JONES 4-9 4-4 13; ISAAC HALE 2-8 3-4 8; JACOB JARVIS 2-3 2-2 7; MATT BREMER 3-9 0-1 7; NATHANAEL BROSCOFF 2-4 0-1 4; ROCKY DONATELLE 1-2 0-0 3; BRANDON COURTS 0-1 2-2 2; DANIEL PUST 0-0 1-2 1; JEFF METZ 0-4 0-0 0; CHAD DELLOS 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-61 19-25 64. UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MORRIS (5-14, 3-6 UMAC) McNally,Brendan 9-11 2-2 20; Allen,Phil 4-7 5-6 13; Carr,James 4-9 3-3 13; Farmer,Steve 2-6 6-8 10; Cunniff,Kevin 2-5 2-2 6; Durensky,Brent 2-5 0-0 5; Brothen,Hudson 1-2 2-2 4; Conley,Chris 1-3 2-4 4; Bosch,Jeremy 0-1 2-2 2; Johnson,Ross 0-0 1-2 1; Kelzenberg,Corey 0-2 1-2 1; Noonan,Jordan 0-1 0-0 0; Zych,Daron 0-1 0-0 0; Dalbey,Eric 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-54 26-33 79. Crown College................. 27 37 - 64 University of Minnesota Morris 35 44 - 79 3-point goals-Crown College 5-21 (MATT BREMER 1-4; JACOB JARVIS 1-1; ISAAC HALE 1-3; ROCKY DONATELLE 1-2; MITCH JONES 1-1; JEFF METZ 0-2; CHAD DELLOS 0-1; BRANDON COURTS 0-1; KINCADE KIRKPATRICK 0-6), University of Minnesota Morris 3-10 (Carr,James 2-5; Durensky,Brent 1-2; Cunniff,Kevin 0-2; Kelzenberg,Corey 0-1). Fouled out--Crown College-NATHANAEL BROSCOFF, University of Minnesota Morris-Durensky,Brent. Rebounds-Crown College 35 (MITCH JONES 10), University of Minnesota Morris 45 (Durensky,Brent 5; Farmer,Steve 5; McNally,Brendan 5; Carr,James 5). Assists-Crown College 10 (ISAAC HALE 3), University of Minnesota Morris 17 (Cunniff,Kevin 7). Total fouls-Crown College 25, University of Minnesota Morris 22. A-136 Minnesota Morris travels to Minneapolis to take on North Central University Monday Feburary 5th at 7:30 PM.