No. 5 Cougars run away with UMAC men's basketball quarterfinal victory
ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn.---The last time Crown College was in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) men’s basketball tournament in 2013-14, it faced the University of Minnesota Morris on the road and pulled off an impressive two-point win to advance to the title game. Fast forward to 2017-18 – the tables were reversed as No. 4 Crown welcomed No. 5 Minnesota Morris Monday hoping for a win in its postseason return.
As fate would have it, the road team again had the advantage and, this time, it was No. 5 Minnesota Morris that started off hot and never looked back en route to an impressive 110-96 road win over No. 4 Crown in UMAC quarterfinal action Monday evening.
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Tournament Site |
Box Score |
Crown scored the opening bucket of the game, but that was the only lead the Storm would see all night. The Cougars scored next and needed just 4:30 to build a double-digit lead. Eventually, the Cougars led by as many as 21 points in the first half before the Storm came to life in the waning minutes to cut the lead to 54-40 at intermission.
The Cougars continued to roll, though, in the second half as they slowly built back their advantage and reached the 100-point mark with 3:53 remaining. Minnesota Morris finished in control and came up with their second-consecutive win as the No. 5 seed in the UMAC tournament behind a 30-point performance from offensive star CD Douglas. The senior was 10-of-10 from the line and 10-of-18 from the field. Noah Grove was also impressive pouring in 26 points, while Jeremy Halvorsen had 19. The Cougars finished shooting 59.7 percent from the field.
The Storm had five players score in double figures with Tim Wendel tallying a team-high 26 points on 50 percent shooting. Austin VanDerHeyden added 19 points going 9-of-12 at the charity stripe, while Logan Strand came off the bench for 15 points.
The No . 5 Cougars will now travel to face No. 1 Bethany Lutheran College Wednesday night in semifinal action at 5:30 p.m. in Mankato, Minnesota. The other semifinal will see No. 2 College of St. Scholastica host rial No.3 University of Northwestern Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. in Duluth, Minnesota.
Playoff Schedule
Quarterfinal Round – Monday, Feb. 19
No. 5 Minnesota Morris def. No. 4 Crown, 108-96 |
Box Score | CC Recap |
UMM Recap |
Semifinal Round – Wednesday, Feb. 21
No. 5 Minnesota Morris winner AT No. 1 Bethany Lutheran; Mankato, Minn., 5:30 p.m. |
Live Stats |
Live Video |
No. 3 Northwestern AT No. 2 St. Scholastica; Duluth, Minn., 7:30 p.m. |
Live Stats |
Live Video |
Championship – Saturday, Feb. 24
Lowest remaining seed at highest remaining seed; Location and time, TBD
Ticket Information
All UMAC postseason events have the following set admissions prices: Adults, $7; college students and seniors, $5; youth (Age 6-18), $3; age 5 and under, FREE. Any UMAC students, faculty and staff are free with a valid and current institutional ID. No other passes will be accepted.
All tournament information including scores, recaps, team information and more can be found on the UMAC Men’s Basketball page. Keep up with all of the tournament action on Twitter and
Instagram using #UMACchamp.