The game of basketball is really a simple game. Put the ball in the basket more than your opponent and you earn a win. The University of Minnesota-Morris men’s team did just that, especially in the second half Wednesday and turned a nine point half time deficit into a 91-84 win over Mayville State University at the P.E. Center for their first win of the season.
UMM nearly doubled their first half point total and more than doubled their shooting percentage from the first half to the second half.
Minnesota-Morris scored the first three points of the game and five minutes into the contest led 12-3 after a Brendan McNally (Jr. Lindstrom, MN) basket.
Mayville State then caught fire and went on a 26-10 scoring run over the next 10 minutes to open up a 29-21 lead with five minutes left in the half.
A pair of Will Jensen (Jr. Eau Claire, WI) jumpers brought the Cougars to within five at 31-26, but the Comets scored nine of the final 14 points in the half to take a 40-31 lead at the break.
Neither team shot particularly well in the first 20 minutes as MSU was 16-37 (43%), while the Cougars hit on just 31 percent (11-35) of their shots in the first half.
Mayville State also used a 26-6 advantage on points in the paint to take the lead at the half.
Prior to Wednesday’s game, the Cougars would have preferred to skip halftime and go right into the second half.
What ever Head Coach Paul Grove said in the locker room, he might want to have a patent put on it because it sure worked.
Minnesota-Morris came out of the locker room like gang busters and hit 13 of their first 16 shots from the floor in the second half, including five three’s and five lay-ups in the first 10 minutes of the half to take a 62-52 lead and never looked back.
Lay-ups by Corey Kelzenberg (So. Fridley, MN) and John Hebert (So. Ashland, WI) cut the deficit to three at 40-37.
Saddled with foul trouble and only two points in the first half, Brent Durensky (Jr. Barnesville, MN) then hit three straight long range three’s and the Cougars led 46-44 with 16:30 left in the second half.
Back to back three’s by Corey Kelzenberg gave the Cougar lead to 12 at 60-48 a short time later.
The Comets would not go away and used some full court pressure to create turnovers and cut the Cougar lead to six at 66-60 with just under 10 minutes left in the game.
UMM pushed the lead back to double digits at 13, their largest of the game at 80-67 after a John Hebert free throw with exactly five minutes left in the game.
Mayville State scored 11 unanswered over the next two and a half minutes and cut the gap to three at 81-78.
The Cougars made 10 trips to the free throw line over the final: 47 seconds of the game and converted on eight of those attempts to seal the 91-84 win.
Minnesota-Morris torched the nets in the second half at a 64 percent clip hitting 21 of 33 from the floor over the final 20 minutes, including six of 11 from behind the arc (54%) in the second half and scored 60 points over the last 20 minutes after putting up just 31 in the first half.
For the game UMM shot a season high 47 percent (32-68) and held Mayville State to just 41 percent (16-37) from the field, a season best.
For the fifth straight game this year, UMM had four players in double figures led by Brendan McNally who had a game high 20 points and picked up his second double-double of the season adding 10 rebounds.
John Hebert had a season high 19, Brent Durensky added a season high 15, Corey Kelzenberg had a season high 13 and James Carr (Jr. Barnesville, MN) also added 13.
Monty Rogers (Murray, UT) led Mayville State with 17 points and a game high 13 rebounds.
Minnesota-Morris (1-4) continues their three game home stand when they host Gustavus this Friday, December 9 at 7:30 and North Central University Saturday December 10 at 3:00 at the UMM P.E. Center