SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Forced to dig their way out of a double digit deficit, the University of Mary men's basketball team rolled off seven straight points in the final minutes and withheld a late run by the University of Sioux Falls in the Marauders 69-65 win over the Cougars. The victory gave U-Mary its first weekend sweep of Northern Sun road games in five seasons.
U-Mary opened the weekend with a 91-82 win at Southwest Minnesota State University on Friday. The last time U-Mary swept a weekend series on the road was February 18-19, 2011, when the Marauders defeated Concordia-St. Paul and St. Cloud State University. Dating back to last season, the Marauders have now won three straight Northern Sun regular season road games, their longest conference road winning streak since capturing eight straight away games in Jan.-Feb. 2011.
Sioux Falls controlled the opening half, never trailing and leading 32-29 at intermission. Taking advantage of eight Marauders miscues, the Cougars had a 10-2 advantage in points off turnovers. Additionally U-Mary struggled at the line, making just 4-of-10 free throw attempts.
More Marauders mistakes to start the second half allowed the Cougars to increase their lead to 42-32. U-Mary made just one of its first four shots from the floor, was 1-of-2 free throws and committed two turnovers in less than four minutes.
Defense would get the Marauders back into the game.
Rickey Suggs hauled down a defensive rebound and finished with a fast break bucket at the other end to get U-Mary within single digits. A steal by
Damonta Henry led to a fast break basket by
Bryan Jefferson. Another defensive rebound, this time by
Devan Douglas, led to a trey by Henry and the Marauders were back in the game at 42-39.
Minutes later, a 9-0 run by U-Mary led to the Marauders first lead of the night. Down by six, Suggs and Henry made back-to-back layups, the second off a fast break.
Michael Gorder then provided the Marauders their first lead of the night. After hauling in a defensive rebound, Gorder connected on a layup to tie the game. Fouled while shooting, Gorder then broke the tie with a free throw to cap the three point play. A layup by Henry pushed the Marauders advantage to 50-47.
With neither team able to grab control of the game, a Clint Thomas 3-pointer for USF knotted the contest at 59-59, the fourth and final tie of the night.
Ignited by a Douglas dunk, the Marauders rolled off seven straight points to take control of the game. Suggs then snared a defensive rebounds to set up an
Isaac Lindquist layup. A
Marquealis Edwards steal led to the the final dagger, a 3-pointer by
Brandon Tyler for a 66-59 lead with 1:36 remaining.
Refusing to fade away, the Cougars sandwiched a pair of Mack Johnson 3-pointers around a single Douglas free throw to pull within 67-65 with 59 seconds on the clock.
Attempting a layup with the shot clock running down, the Marauders misfired and the Cougars had a chance to take the lead. Despite shooting on their home court, twice the Cougars failed on trey attempts with the chance to take a lead.
Refusing to give USF a third shot at the win, Edwards hauled down a defensive rebounds with under ten seconds left in the game. The senior guard hit two free throws with a second remaining to cement the Marauders win.
U-Mary improved to 7-2 overall and 4-1 in the Northern Sun. USF is 7-3 and 3-2.
The Marauders are off to both their best overall start and best NSIC start of the school's NCAA era, which began with the 2006-07 season.
Coming of the bench, Henry led the Marauders with 12 points, hitting 2-of-3 trey attempts. Douglas added 11 points and four rebounds. Edwards chipped in 10 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. Jefferson had nine rebounds and seven points.
Thomas, also in a reserve roll, led all players with 17 points for USF. He was 4-of-6 behind the arc. Johnson added three treys and had 15 points and four assists.
After shooting just 42.3 percent from the floor in the opening stanza, the Marauders made 51.7 percent of their shots and outscored the Cougars 40-33 in the second half. U-Mary made 47.3 percent of its field goal attempts overall while defensively the Marauders held the Cougars to 40.3 percent.
Neither team connected at the free throw line. U-Mary was 12-of-22. USF was even worse, making 5-of-14.
The Marauders start a five game home stand on Monday, Dec. 14, when U-Mary hosts Oglala Lakota College at 7 p.m.
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