WINONA, MN – A hot start by Kevin McGaskey sparked hopes for an upset by the University of Mary men's basketball team in the Marauders weekend opener at Winona State University. The Marauders pushed the Warriors to the end before suffering a 73-68 road loss to WSU, one of four teams tied for second place in the Northern Sun standings entering the second to last weekend of the season.
 
McGaskey erupted for a season-best 29 points for the Marauders. A graduate transfer from Prairie View A&M, the UMary point guard was deadly from deep as he drained 7-of-12 shots from behind the arc while making 11-of-20 shots overall. Five of his treys and 19 points came in the first half. He also snared five rebounds in the game.
 
Behind a trio of treys and a layup, McGaskey scored the Marauders (5-23 overall, 3-16 Northern Sun) first 11 points of the game as UMary jumped out to an 11-1 lead. A three-point by Alex Mattes and a trey by Jeremiah Jones pushed the Marauders to their biggest lead of the night at 17-4.
 
The Warriors (18-7, 13-6) fought back to take their first lead of the night at 24-23. Keyed by five straight points by Ty Rogers, UMary soon followed with a 9-0 run to regain the lead at 35-27 before eventually entering intermission with a 38-33 lead.
 
Winona State fought back to take a 45-44 lead on an Isaiah Thompson trey. After a couple lead changes, another triple by McGaskey gave UMary its final lead of the night at 52-51.
 
Down 61-54, treys by Jones and McGaskey sandwiched around a Rich Ashu basket closed the Marauders gap to 63-62 with four minutes to play. UMary suddenly turned cold, missing its next six shots in its bid for a win.
 
The seven treys by McGaskey was the most for the Marauders since Kai Huntsberry drained eight for UMary in the NSIC quarterfinals against the University of Minnesota Duluth on February 26, 2022.
 
After scoring 32 points in his last game at MSU Moorhead to tie the Marauders NCAA single game scoring record for a freshman, Wylee Delorme came off the bench to tally ten for UMary. He hit a pair of treys in the game.
 
Rogers added ten points and four rebounds.
 
Jones just missed a double double. He led all players with 12 rebounds and scored nine points. Jones also had five assists, three steals and two blocks.
 
Luke Haertle led the Warriors with 27 points and 11 rebounds. Thompson added 20 points and Connor Drew scored 17.
 
UMary made 12-of-32 3-pointers (37.5%) and made 37.2% of its shots overall while making 10-of-14 free throws. WSU shot 43.9% overall and made 8-of-25 treys with a 15-of-20 effort at the line.
 
The Marauders led 23:00 to 15:33 for the Warriors in a game that featured 11 lead changes and two ties.
 
UMary wraps up its final road trip of the season at Minnesota State University on Saturday, February 15. Game time is set for 3:30 pm in Mankato. MN.
 
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