Box Score MORRIS, Minn. – The St. Scholastica men's basketball team fell victim to a opening game 10-1 run by the Minnesota-Morris Cougars and were unable to erase the lead and fell 82-67 Friday night in Morris.
The opening minutes saw the Cougars jump out 11-4 lead with only three minutes gone in the contest. The Saints charged back to within one, 17-16, with 8:15 left in the first half. The Cougars never let the Saints come any closer and went into the break leading 33-25.
The second half saw the Saints take another shot at the Cougar lead chipping it down to four with 14:29 left in the contest. Morris would then extend the lead to as large as 15, but the Saints would never go away. The Saints crawled back to within four again, this time with 4:31 remaining in the contest.
The Cougars would hault the Saints' rally in the final minutes and would defeat the Saints by a final score of 82-67.
Minnesota-Morris (10-14, 6-7 UMAC) had five players score in double figures with two players tying at 18 points. For the game the Cougars would shoot 57-percent from the field, 56-percent from beyond the arc, and 74-percent from the free-throw line.
The Cougars would collect 31 total rebounds and commit 19 turnovers.
For the Saints,
Chris Hamers (Onamia, Minn./Onamia HS) led all scorers with 23 points.
Brett Tester (Andover, Minn./Andover HS) chipped in 10 points and had five steals.
Cole Mortel (Luck, Wis./Luck HS) added eight points off of the bench .
The Saints finished the game shooting 50-percent from the field, 50-percent from beyond the arc, and 59-percent from the charity stripe. The Saints would grab a season-low 17 rebounds and commit 17 turnovers.
With the loss, St. Scholastica is still in a tie for the No. 2 seed for the UMAC tournament with Northwestern, who also lost Friday night.
The Saints (12-12, 9-4 UMAC) will finish out the regular season at Presentation College tomorrow night with the tip-off scheduled for 5 pm local time. Tune into csssaints.com after the conclusion of the game to see what seed St. Scholastica will receive for the UMAC Tournament.
