Box Score MOORHEAD, Minn. – The No. 3 Minnesota State University Moorhead men's basketball team's school-record 16-game winning streak game to an end Friday night at Nemzek Fieldhouse when the University of Mary defeated the Dragons, 77-73 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.
The Dragons are now 16-2 on the season, 8-1 in conference play. The Marauders are 13-2 overall and 8-1 in the NSIC.
Sophomore guard
Tanner Kretchman's career-high 25 points and five rebounds led the Dragons. Kretchman went 9-of-12 from the field and was 4-of-6 from three-point range, shooting 100 percent from beyond the arc in the first half. Senior center
Isaac Sevlie had 15 points and six rebounds while senior guard
Tyler Vaughan had 12 points.
The Dragons shot 48 percent from the field, going 24-of-50, while the Marauders were 28-of-62 on the game, shooting 45.2 percent. U-Mary outrebounded the Dragons 36-30, and committed seven turnovers compared to 12 from the Dragons.
The Dragons opened the game on an 11-3 run over the first 5:09, led by five points from Kretchman and four from Vaughan. The lead grew to 16-5 moments later after a layup by senior guard
Ngijol Songolo.
MSUM led by as many as 14 in the first half and took a 38-30 lead into halftime. Kretchman had 12 first-half points to pace MSUM while Vaughan had nine. The Dragons shot 48 percent (12-of-25) in the first half compared to 30.0 percent (9-of-30) for the Marauders.
The Marauders went on a 12-4 run to start the second half and tied the game at 42 on a jumper from Issac Lindquist. A huge three from Kretchman gave the Dragons a 55-47 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the game, but the Marauders would claw their way back and tie the game at 67. From there, it would be a back and forth battle. U-Mary would take a two-point lead with just over a minute remaining, but a three-point play from Kretchman would tie the game back at 73 with 45 seconds remaining.
U-Mary's Marquealis Edwards missed a three-point shot with 17 seconds left, but grabbed his own rebound and laid it in with eight seconds left. The Dragons had a chance to tie the game but a shot wouldn't fall and the Marauders grabbed the miss and sealed the win with two free-throws.
The last home loss for the Dragons was Feb. 8, 2014 when the Bulldogs of Duluth beat MSUM, 70-67.
MSUM wraps up the weekend at 6 p.m. on Saturday at home against Minot State.
Steve d'Eustachio Stat of the Game: The Marauders outscored the Dragons 47-35 in the second half. This marked the first time that the Dragons have been outscored by at least a dozen in the second half in nearly three years. The Dragons held a 40-26 halftime lead over Wayne St. on Feb. 9, 2013, then got outscored 47-30 en route to a 73-70 loss.
