Fargo, N.D. ? The
UMKC men's basketball team dropped a 90-82 road contest to North Dakota State
on Saturday night at the Bison Sports Arena.
The Kangaroos closed a 21-point deficit to six points late in the game
before ultimately dropping the eight-point decision.
The Bison got off to a quick start over the first five
minutes of the contest, as they built an early 15-3 lead. The Kangaroos cut the deficit to seven points
(20-13) on five straight points by Kenny Simms and a Jeremiah Hartsock tip-in,
but NDSU then used a 12-0 spurt to open up a 32-13 advantage.
After NDSU stretched the margin to 20 (41-21), the Kangaroos
scored eight of the final 10 points to cut their deficit to 14 (43-29) heading
into the locker room. UMKC shot just
.370 (10-27) from the floor in the opening half, while the Bison made nearly 50
percent of its attempts (15-29; .471).
North Dakota
State opened the second
half by scoring the first seven points to push its lead to 50-29. The squad then maintained the advantage until
the 12-minute mark when the Kangaroos went on a spurt.
Spencer Johnson opened a 13-0 Kangaroo run with a pair of
free throws before Dane Brumagin, Tim Blackwell and Johnson all connected on
three pointers to cut the margin to 10 at 64-54. Simms then capped off the team's run with a
bank shot field goal to get the team to within eight points with 7:08 left.
The Bison, however, answered with a 9-2 run of their own to
stretch their advantage back to 16 points (76-60) with 3:46 left. The Kangaroos
continued battling as they cut the deficit to 10 points (78-68) with 1:45
remaining. UMKC extended the game by
virtue of the foul, and the method worked as the squad got to within six on a
pair of occasions down the stretch.
UMKC finished with a .464 (26-56) field goal percentage and
a .316 (6-19) mark from long range.
NDSU, meanwhile, shot .519 (28-54) from the field and .385 (5-13) from
three point range. The Bison also
connected on 29-of-35 free throws, while UMKC made 24-of-28 attempts.
Three Kangaroos finished the contest in double figures. Brumagin netted 23 on the night ? his third
straight game with 20 points ? on 8-of-16 shooting to go along with six
rebounds. Blackwell finished with 18
points, and Simms added 13 points and six boards off the bench. Freshman Reggie Hamilton did not play in the
game after suffering an ankle injury against South Dakota State
on Thursday.
NDSU also had three players finish in double digits. Ben Woodside scored a game-high 28 points on
5-of-9 shooting, and he made 16-of-19 attempts from the charity stripe. Brett Winkelman finished with 21, and Mike
Nelson added 19 in the winning effort.
UMKC (7-13, 2-5) will return to action on Thursday night
when it hosts conference-leading Oral Roberts at Kemper Arena in Kansas City.
