DULUTH, Minn. – Junior Mark Blacklock led the Warriors with 18 points but the Winona State men's basketball team fell to Minnesota Duluth 76-63 Saturday evening in Romano Gym.
Blacklock, who rebounded from a scoreless performance on Friday night, had his 18 points come on a strong 6-of-7 shooting night along with making 5-of-6 free throws.
The Warriors still were yet to find their elusive first road win as the Bulldogs shot 52.9 percent (27-of-51) for the game and made half of their three pointers, sinking 11 on the night. WSU, meanwhile, made just two of 13 attempts from 3-point range while shooting 44.8 percent from the field overall.
Winona State found itself in an early 9-4 hole less than five minutes into the game after back-to-back layups by UMD's Pierre Newton. A Blacklock 3-point play got it back to 9-7, but a 10-2 Bulldog run made it 19-9 with 11:22 to play. A 3-pointer by Reece Zoelle at the 7:33 mark opened up a 13-point advantage for the Bulldogs – the largest of the half – and UMD would take a 10-point, 41-31 lead into the halftime break.
UMD converted a 3-point play to push the lead to 16 points at 57-41, and after a Tim Wagner 3-pointer UMD's Kyle Schalow hit one of his own to make 60-44 with 13:49 left. With the score 62-46, the Warriors mounted a furious comeback with a 12-0 run over the next seven minutes to cut the Bulldog lead to just four. Mohamed Ali Ben Ammar sparked the run with three straight baskets, then Isaiah Gray got the lead back down to single digits on a jumper with 8:39 to play to cut the UMD advantage to 62-54. Conrad Masberg then hit a pair of free throws and Blacklock did the same to all of a sudden make it a four-point game, 62-58, with 6:13 to play.
That's as close as the Warriors would get, as the Bulldogs pushed the lead back to double digits with a minute to go and ran the final score to 76-63.
Gray joined Blacklock in double figures, finishing with 10 points along with a team-high four assists. WSU struggled with its rebounding, grabbing just 25 as a team – while Corey Jeffs led the team with four. UMD, meanwhile, recorded 34 rebounds. The Warriors held on to the ball, committing just six turnovers while the Bulldogs had 10.
Winona State (11-11, 8-10 NSIC) returns to the road next weekend for a pair of matchups against Minnesota State and Concordia-St. Paul on Friday and Saturday.
