ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The Minnesota State University Moorhead men's basketball team dropped a 92-71 contest to No. 1-ranked and defending national champion Northwest Missouri State in non conference action Saturday in St. Joseph, Mo.

MSUM is now 0-2 on the year while Northwest Missouri is 4-0.

Sophomore guard Gavin Baumgartner led MSUM with 22 points, while junior forward Joe Sevlie had 14 points and junior forward Kaedrick Williams had 10.

Sophomore guard Siman Sem led with five rebounds while sophomore guard Bryce Irsfeld had three assists.

MSUM shot well in the game, hitting on 58.5 percent (31-of-53) field goal attempts compared to 55.6 percent for the Bearcats.

MSUM led 11-8 four minutes into the game after a three-pointer by junior forward Joe Sevlie, but the Bearcats were able to gain the lead and went into half with a 53-35 lead.

The Dragons battled back, and cut the lead to 63-54 with 13:41 left after a Sevlie basket.  The Bearcats responded with am 8-0 run to push the lead back to 71-54 and MSUM got no closer than 13 the rest of the way.

Freshman forward Dane Zimmer had seven points for MSUM.

The Dragons are home this week to face nonconference foe Dickinson State on Thursday for a 6 p.m. game.