DULUTH, Minn. – Minnesota Duluth earned its second straight victory by limiting Southwest Minnesota State to a season-low points to pick-up a 63-44 win in NSIC men's college basketball on Wednesday night at Romano Gymnasium.
 
SMSU, ranked No. 15/18 in this week's national polls, drops to 18-5 overall, 13-4 NSIC, while UMD improves to 15-7 overall, 10-6 NSIC.
 
SMSU, which shot a season-low 31 percent (16 of 52) and was outrebounded 43-25, remains alone atop the league standings following Minot State's home loss to MSU Moorhead.
 
Landon Pokorski was the lone Mustang to score in double figures with 10 points on 3 of 5 shooting with a pair of 3-pointers. Dunwa Omot scored nine points, while Mason Lund and Jakob Braaten both added six points. Steven Kramer pulled down a team-high seven rebounds with Lund grabbing five rebounds.
 
UMD finished the game shooting 46 percent (25 of 54), while making five 3-pointers. Charlie Katona led the Bulldogs with 19 points with teammate Austin Andrews grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds.
 
SMSU opened the game falling behind 13-0 in the first eight minutes before Omot hit a field goal for the Mustangs' first points at the 11:47 mark.
 
SMSU's offensive struggles would continue with UMD building a 25-7 advantage with just under seven minutes left in the half. UMD would then go on its own offensive funk with SMSU rallying with a 10-0 run behind two field goals by Braaten and back-to-back 3-pointers by Omot and Lund to cut the deficit to 25-17 with two minutes remaining. Lund would connect on another 3-pointer in the final minute but UMD hit a jumper at the buzzer to close the half with a 31-20 halftime lead.
 
SMSU was limited to 31 percent shooting in the first half making 8 of 26 attempts. The last time SMSU was limited to 20 or less points in a half occurred on Feb. 11, 2022, at Upper Iowa.
 
SMSU opened the second half with an Omot layup to pull to within single digits at 31-22, but UMD countered with a 12-3 run over a three-minute stretch to put the game away.  
 
The victory was just the fifth for UMD in the last 25 meetings between the two teams but has now won the last three in Duluth.
 
SMSU returns to action on Saturday hosting Winona State for the annual 'Tropical Night' game with game time slated for 5 p.m. inside the R/A Facility.