The University of Minnesota-Morris men’s basketball team kicked off the 2006 portion of their schedule in style with a 60-58 road win over Valley City State University Monday night, avenging the 80-74 loss to the Vikings earlier in the season.
Justin Curry's (Jr. Indianapolis, IN) three-point attempt at the buzzer fell short as did the Vikings comeback bid as the University of Minnesota Morris held on for the win.
Corey Kelzenberg (So. Fridley, MN) hit a short runner with six seconds remaining to give UMM one of their few leads of the game.
Kelzenberg, who was fouled on the play, missed a free throw and the Vikings Brady Ernst (So. Dickinson, ND drove the length of the court finding Curry open and with a good look at the basket.
But Curry's attempt was short and the Cougars escaped with the win.
The Vikings led by as many as 13 points before the Cougars whittled the lead to three points by intermission at 27-24.
VCSU pushed the Vikings lead to 12 after Steve Trudeau's (Jr. Mayville, ND) three-pointer with just under 12 minutes remaining.
A field goal by Brendan McNally gave the Cougars a 52-50 lead with two minutes remaining.
Curry's jumper tied the games before back-to-back field goals by Steve Farmer and James Carr put the Cougars up 58-54.
Ernst converted two free throws and another Curry jumper tied the game 58 before Kelzenberg's game winning basket.
Minnesota-Morris outscored VCSU 36-31 in the second half, shooting 44 percent (14-32) from the floor and 8-of-12 at the free throw line.
After giving up an average of 91 points per game in the first seven games of the season, the Cougars have stepped it up on the defensive side of the floor in the last three, yielding 60 pointes per contest. UMM has won two of those three games. The one loss was a 64-63 loss at Concordia-Moorhead.
The Cougar defense held the Vikings to just 34 percent (21-61) shooting for the game, which was a season best defensive effort.
Steve Farmer (Fr. Fridley, MN) had a career night against the Vikings with a game high 21 points and nearly had his first career double-double hauling in nine boards.
Brendan McNally (Jr. Lindstrom, MN) was the only other Cougar in double figures with 11. He now has 805 points in his career as he closes in on the 1,000 point mark.
Brady Ernst) led the way for Valley City State with 15.
Minnesota-Morris (4-6), winners of three of their last four games, will open up Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) conference play at home this weekend when they host St. Scholastica at 7:30 Friday, January 6th and then on Saturday the 7th, the Cougars entertain Northland College at 5:00 at the UMM P.E. Center.
(Additional information courtesy VCSU sports information department)