SIOUX FALLS – Despite a career-high 21 points from freshman guard Jack Thompson, the University of Sioux Falls Men's Basketball Team (7-3, 3-1 NSIC) had a three-game winning streak end in an 100-65 setback to Minnesota Duluth (9-1, 4-0 NSIC) in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play at the Stewart Center on Friday.

UMD ended a two-game slide in their series with USF and extended their season winning streak to eight straight games. With the victory, they maintained a lead at the top of the NSIC North Division. The Cougars lost for the first time in NSIC play as they fell to 3-1 and 7-3 overall.

"We had a rough start tonight and UMD came out on fire," said USF Head Coach Chris Johnson, whose team will host St. Cloud State on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. "We just have to play better."

The difference tonight was UMD's sizzling shooting from the field. The Bulldogs made 15 of their first 20 3-pointers and finished at 16-of-24 for 66.7 percent. Overall, UMD was 38-of-59 for 64.4 percent. All-league forward Brandon Myer led USF with 22 points and hit all three of his 3-pointers. Drew Blair added 19 points as he was 5-of-6 from deep while Logan Rohrscheib added 14 points.

As for Thompson, he had a big game for USF with his 21 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals in 26 minutes of work. Not only did he set a career-best, he had 20 points for the first time in his career. Thompson was 8-of-14 from the floor and tied a career high with four triples on six attempts. Senior guard Milan Surlic reached double digits for a second straight game as he had 11 points with three rebounds and three assists. Senior captain Devin Green had double digits for a second straight game with 10 points while hauling down seven rebounds.

For the first time this season, USF lost a rebound battle as they were outboarded, 37-28. The real key was the hot-shooting by UMD, which has 20 assists on 38 baskets. USF connected on just 24-of-64 field goals for 37.5 percent and made 7-of-29 shots from 3-point range for 24.1 percent. The Cougars, which had seven steals, made 10-of-12 free throws.

Scoring Recap
UMD jumped on the Cougars quickly as they rushed out to a 20-4 lead and led 42-29 at halftime. In the opening 20 minutes, UMD made 16-of-26 field goals for 61.5 percent with 7-of-10 conversions from three-point range. As for USF, they made 11-of-32 for 34.4 percent in the opening half. Of that total, the Cougars were just 3-of-15 for 20 percent from three-point range.

After a basket by Chase Grinde tied the game at 2-2, UMD took off with a 12-0 run for a 14-2 lead at the 15:13 mark when Alex Illikainen made a field goal in the paint. Down 22-4, the Cougars had a 13-8 run to cut the lead to 30-17 at the 8:11 mark when Surlic knocked in a three-pointer.  Later Thompson's 3-pointer off a fast break helped USF draw within 39-28 with 2:24 to play. But UMD scored the final three points of the first half for a 42-28 advantage. Thompson led USF with nine points and Surlic had seven in the first half.

In the second half, UMD shot even better than their opening 20 minutes. They were 22-of-33 from the field for 66.7 percent and knocked in 9-of-14 from three-point range for 64.3 percent. USF was at 40.6 percent on 13-of-32 shooting, which included 4-of-14 from 3-point range.

With their hot-shooting, UMD quickly extended their half-time lead. They opened on a 17-to-5 run to take a 59-33 lead at the 15:28 mark. UMD's lead drew to 32 at the 11:50 mark. From that point on, UMD and USF traded baskets as the lead never fell below 30 points.