BISMARCK, N.D. – The Minnesota State University Moorhead men's basketball team fell to U-Mary in their regular-season Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference finale by a score of 83-63 on Saturday night.
MSUM finished the regular-season at 19-11 overall and 13-9 in the NSIC. U-Mary improves to 12-16 overall and 9-13 in the NSIC.
The Dragons shot 34.3 percent (23-of-67) from the field compared to 53.4 percent (31-of-58) for the Marauders. Each team recorded 38 rebounds on the night.
Freshman guard
Gavin Baumgartner led the team with 18 points. Senior guard
Travaun Coad had a team-best seven rebounds and four assists. Freshman guard
Wyatt Hanson had nine points on the night, while freshman guard
Bryce Irsfeld led the team with three steals.
The Marauders opened the game with an 11-1 run before a jumper from Baumgartner cut the deficit to 11-3 with 16:05 remaining in the half. Baumgartner made two free-throws to bring the Marauder lead to 15-9 with 13:07 remaining. The Dragons with pull within three at 18-15 after a jumper from Baumgartner with just over ten minutes to go. U-Mary would go on an 11-point run before a free-throw from junior guard
Johnny Beeninga brought the Dragon deficit to 41-20 with 3:07 on the clock. Two made free-throws from Coad would cut the Mary lead to 49-24 going into the break.
Senior guard
Jake Johnson followed-up two made free-throws with a layup to cut the Marauder lead to 51-38 with 18:54 on the clock. A layup from Hanson would end a U-Mary run as the Dragons trailed 58-45 with under 10 minutes to go. U-Mary would go on an eight-point run before a jumper from Johnson brought the score to 66-47 with 7:28 remaining. Back-to-back jumpers from senior guard
Briton Bussman and Hanson brought the score to 83-63 as the clock ran out. MSUM will host the first round of the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. against Southwest Minnesota State.
Steve d'Eustachio Stat of the Game:
Addison Park fell short of becoming the first Dragon to score at least 30 points in back-to-back games since Brett Beeson did it in his final six games of the 1995-1996 season.
