Despite being the lower seed, Minnesota Duluth men's basketball gave a balanced and steady performance on Monday and never trailed in its Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament semifinal, knocking out Augustana 72-62 at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The Bulldogs outscored the Vikings 15-5 over the first seven minutes, including a pair of Nick Katona 3-pointers. Augustana made some counter-moves, but the Bulldogs led 32-20 at the half. They kept things going after the break, as Augustana never got closer than seven in the second half.
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UMD had measurable but not blatant advantages throughout the night in several useful statistical categories. They outrebounded the Vikings 38-29 and had 14 offensive boards to nine allowed, leading to a 12-2 edge in second-chance points. The Bulldogs made 11 3-pointers to Augie's six and had 14 assists to the opponent's 11.
UMD, which went 25-for-60 (42%) from the floor, got 14 points from Noah Paulson, 13 from Katona and 11 (plus eight rebounds) from Caleb Siwek.
The Bulldogs (20-11) will play St. Cloud State on Tuesday for the NSIC tournament championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. Other than the 2020-21 season marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, UMD has now won 20 or more games in its last five full seasons.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Bulldogs bested by Concordia-St. Paul
A relentless effort from senior Myra Moorjani wasn't enough for Minnesota Duluth on Monday in the NSIC tournament semifinals, as second-seeded Concordia-St. Paul came away 81-65 victors.
Moorjani scored a game-high 25 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the field and 12-of-13 from the free-throw line, but offense proved hard to come by for third-seeded UMD. Besides Moorjani the Bulldogs shot 13-for-38 (34%).
Concordia got to the basket repeatedly, piling up 46 points in the paint as they made more than half their shots in each of the first three quarters.
The Golden Bears led 24-9 late in the first quarter and 43-33 at halftime. A surge of offense off the bench from Karly Jusczak helped the Bulldogs close to within six points in the third quarter, then back-to-back buckets from Maria Counts (a 3-pointer) and Moorjani made it 60-58 Golden Bears with 7:50 to play. After a timeout, the Golden Bears regained their footing and outscored UMD 17-4 over the next 5:38 to put the game away.
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Jusczak added 11 points and Ashley Fritz 10 in reserve roles for UMD.
The Bulldogs (20-8) were ninth in the most recent Central Regional rankings with another edition due out on Tuesday. That and the results of other conference tournaments yet to begin will determine whether or not the Bulldogs get one of eight Central spots in the NCAA field, to be announced later this month.
By Staff reports
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