Story by: Zach Koenig
Morris, MN—The University of Minnesota-Morris men’s basketball team needed an extra five minutes to decide its postseason fate on Tuesday and made the best of them, defeating Presentation College 65-60.
The victory gave the Cougars a berth in this week’s UMAC postseason tournament.
Scoring in double-digits for the Cougars were Will Jenson (Sr. Eau Claire, WI) with 20 points, Phil Allen (Jr. Clarissa, MN) with 18, and Cory Kelzenberg (Sr. Fridley, MN) with 11.
Daniel Fragodt (Fr. Benson, MN) pulled down a career-high 14 rebounds, followed by Joey Fragodt (So. Benson, MN) with eight and Jenson with seven.
The contest proved to be tight for most of the first half. Presentation jumped out to an early 11-7 lead, only to see the Cougars tie the score at 11-11 on two free-throw shots from Eric Dalbey (So. Mora, MN) at 14:26.
UMM went up 17-13 on a three-point play from Kelzenberg, but saw the visitors tie the score again (21-21) with 10:28 remaining.
Two free-throws from Jordan Noonan (So. Richfield, MN) gave Minnesota-Morris a brief 23-21 lead, but Presentation again quickly tied the score at 23-23.
From that point, Presentation held on to the lead for the rest of the half. Points from Dalbey and Allen in the closing minutes kept the halftime score close, just 38-35 in favor of Presentation.
Both Kelzenberg and Allen scored 10 points in the first half, while Daniel Fragodt and Joey Fragodt grabbed five rebounds apiece.
The visitors maintained their lead over the Cougars in the opening minutes of the second half, extending it to 51-42 with 9:14 on the clock.
At 3:29, with Presentation leading 57-51, the combination of Jenson and Allen scored seven consecutive points to give the Cougars a slim 58-57 lead with 1:41 remaining.
A free-throw from Kelzenberg put the score at 59-57 with 30 seconds to play, but layup from Presentation’s Jered Wambach tied the score and sent the game into overtime.
Jenson’s 11 points led the second half scoring for the Cougars, while Daniel Fragodt had eight rebounds.
In overtime, a layup from Jenson gave UMM a quick 61-59 lead, but a Presentation free-throw put the visitors within one.
Those were the last points Presentation would put on the scoreboard, however, as free-throws from Jenson and Allen provided the 65-60 margin of victory.
The Cougars shot only 29.5% (17-55) from the floor in the contest, but outscored Presentation 13-5 in points coming off of turnovers.
UMM is no 14-11 overall and 9-5 in the UMAC.
Minnesota-Morris will now travel to Northwestern College in St. Paul for the UMAC postseason tournament. Their first opponent is Bethany Lutheran on Thursday, February 21, at 6:00 p.m. The winner of that contest will play Northwestern on Friday at 8:00 p.m.
 |  |
| Minnesota-Morris | 35 | 24 | 6 | 6 |
| Presentation College | 38 | 21 | 1 | 60 |
Box Score
