Box Score Notables-Both teams made just nine field goals in the second half-Every player that entered the game for the Saints scored at least one basket-CSS outrebounded the Cougars 42-32
DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica men's basketball team fell to the University of Minnesota Morris 62-60 on a night where they allowed 16 points off of 18 turnovers.
The first half of the game was a tight half all throughout with no team leading by more than four points. Neal Helgeson of Morris and
Andrew Laughlin (Duluth, Minn./Duluth Central HS) of CSS each had 10 points while Laughlin had the edge in rebounds with six in the half.
The Saints built up their largest lead of the half on a 6-0 run highlighted by back to back dunks first by
Mike Spoden (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids HS) with 6:55 to go and then by Laughlin with 6:33 to go following a steal by
Jake Naslund (Barnum, Minn./Barnum HS). The run put CSS up 24-20 and put the momentum firmly in the hands of St. Scholastica.
Unfortunately for CSS, the Cougars would answer the 6-0 run of the Saints with a 6-0 run of their own on back to back Dylan Erickson 3-pointers to give them the two point lead at 26-24 with 5:30 left in the half.
CSS would be able to tie the game at 29 apiece after two
Zach Dahlman (Braham, Minn./Braham HS) free throws, and then proceeded to take a 32-29 lead after a
LaMonte Hall (Minneapolis, Minn./DeLaSalle HS (Saint Mary’s)) 3-pointer with 2:26 to go before halftime.
The Hall 3-pointer would prove to be the last bucket of the half as CSS took a 32-29 lead into the halftime locker room.
The Saints and Cougars played very even basketball for most of the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Saints built up their largest lead of the game after Hall got a layup to go to extend their lead to six at 43-37 with 12:28 to go in the game.
The Cougars would respond to the six point deficit with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to put themselves up by four points at 47-43 with 9:23 left.
It was all Morris could do to hold the close lead, as they led by no more than four points for the next eight minutes. However they never game up that lead as it seemed that every time the Saints got it to within one possession the Cougars would answer with a basket of their own.
Morris would take a seven point lead with just 23 seconds left after a 5-0 run, but the Saints would not say die as Naslund came down and sunk a 3-pointer with 13 seconds to go cutting the lead to just four.
After fouling on the inbound play, Morris had a chance to ice the game at the free throw line. After the Cougars missed both free throws and a CSS rebound followed by a timeout, the Saints ran a perfect play to give
Tyler Rosenberger (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake HS) a good layup taking just two seconds off of the clock and bringing the deficit to just two points at 62-60 with 3 seconds to go.
CSS would put on full court pressure on the inbound play causing the ball to deflect out of bounds off of a cougar player which set up a last second chance for CSS to win or tie the game.
Unfortunately, coming off of a screen Naslund's foot just scraped the out of bounds line and the CSS comeback would fall short by two points at 62-60.
Laughlin would finish the game with a double-double totaling 14 points and 12 rebounds, six of which were on the offensive end, while Naslund added 10 points of his own.
CSS (9-11 5-4 UMAC) will next be in action tomorrow afternoon when they host Crown College with that game set to tip off at 5 p.m. Catch all the late season action live at Saints Sports Net.
