DULUTH — On the heels of a rocky two-game road stretch last week, the Minnesota Duluth men’s basketball team made the most of its return home on Saturday, knocking off Concordia-St. Paul in a down-to-the-wire 88-87 final.
The win over the Golden Bears, who were occupying third place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings, moves the Bulldogs to 11-1 at home and 14-7 overall.
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After challenging the team in film sessions leading up to the game, head coach Justin Wieck credited the team’s response over both halves.
“I just thought our overall intensity was where it needed to be for 40 minutes,” said Wieck. “In film this week, I didn't think we were playing at the intensity level we needed for these last couple games. For guys that have played 150 games here and have won and done a ton, it's not easy to always do that to those guys, but they listened. They responded.”
The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s highest-scoring offense looked the part in the early goings of the first half after knocking down five of their first seven shots to take a 12-6 lead four and half minutes into the contest.
Senior guard Antwan Kimmons, who entered the game averaging an NSIC-best 24.8 points per game, continued his torrid scoring pace with 14 points at a 4-of-6 shooting clip. The 6-foot guard finished with a team-high 27 points overall.
After a quiet offensive start, the ‘Dogs hit a new gear following a fastbreak alley-oop dunk from Kole Hanson to Mattie Thompson, injecting a shot of energy into the Romano Gym crowd and setting off a 10-5 scoring run to put UMD in front at 16-14.
The home team powered through a late CSP push to maintain a 47-44 lead at the break after a final-second 3-point shot by leading scorer Charlie Katona. Katona matched Kimmons’ 14 first-half points with a perfect 3-for-3 mark from long range. Austin Andrews added 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting on the post.
Both teams were dialed in offensively after finishing at or above 50% shooting with CSP hitting 16-of-29 (55%) shots. UMD finished 19-for-38. The ‘Dogs struggled from the charity stripe, however, hitting only 7-of-14 attempts.
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Minutes into the second half, UMD jumped out to its largest lead of the game to that point at 56-49 and protected it into the final minutes of the game behind a clinical scoring effort in the paint by Austin Andrews, who dropped 18 points in the second half and 29 overall.
“We're a different team when he can score in the post at that high level and that's what he has done his whole career, especially early in his career,” said Wieck. “....He's a huge part of what we are doing.”
Even after a poster dunk by Nick Katona and a mid-range jumper by Joshua Brown made it an eight-point game with four minutes remaining, the Golden Bears hung tough with Kimmons leading the charge. The visitors ultimately pulled ahead 85-83 after back-to-back 3-point makes by Reid Patterson.
An Andrews layup followed by a 1-for-2 trip to the charity stripe gave the Bulldogs for the last time at 86-85 with just over a minute left to play. Charlie Katona added two more points at the free throw line to make it a 3-point game moments later.
After a pair of made free throws by Ben Kopetzki, the Golden Bears had one final chance to pull in front in the waning seconds as Kimmons made a hard drive to the basket but couldn’t lay it in.
The Bulldogs, now 9-6 in conference play, will be back on their home court on Wednesday to take on NSIC leader Southwest Minnesota State at 5:30 p.m.
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