In their first action of the season, the Yellowjacket men's basketball team took on a Minnesota Duluth team that, in the last week, lost their best player for the season to an injury.

Apparently they still have some pretty potent weapons left in the arsenal.

The Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead on Tuesday night at Romano Gym, and were in front from start to finish as they bested their Twin Ports rivals from UW-Superior 73-58 before a crowd of 753.

UMD opened the scoring just over a minute into the contest were up 5-0 before the game was two minutes old. Yellowjacket freshman Tilyn Hollis (Minneapolis, Minn.) scored the first bucket of the season for the Yellowjackets, making a layup at 2:19 to get the Yellowjackets on the board. A layup by Bronson Byrne (Chanhassen, Minn./Chaska) pulled the Yellowjackets to within one at 5-4, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way.

Over the next four minutes the Bulldogs would go on a 12-1 run to blow the game open. The Yellowjacket deficit teetered between 10 and 12 points for several minutes before UMD went on a 6-0 run to increase the lead. The Yellowjackets, who struggled to score much of the first half, reached double digits on a pair of Jarrod Peterson (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata) free throws with 7:32 left in the opening half.

In the closing moments of the first half the Yellowjackets got points from two Peterson free throws, a three from Hollis and a layup from Byrne to trim the lead back down to nine points with under a minute to play in the opening frame. After the Bulldogs jumped back ahead by 11, Byrne drained a couple free throws to send the Yellowjackets to the locker room down by nine, 34-25.

The Yellowjackets only made seven baskets in the first half, shooting 25% while UMD shot 43.8%. Byrne, who is the all-time leader in field goal percentage in WIAC history, was only 2-of-7 from the field in the first half but did lead the Yellowjackets with seven points.

In the second half the teams went back and forth, trading baskets early, but the Bulldogs eventually began to pull away. A 20-11 run through the middle of the half stretched the lead to a high point of 18 at the 12:18 mark of the half. UMD would push the lead to 18 two more times in the half, the final time coming with just 21 seconds left to play.

Aaron Corry (Lake Nebagamon, Wis./Northwestern) hit a free throw and Hollis a layup to close out the scoring in the game.

Byrne led the Yellowjackets in the game with 14 points before fouling out. Hollis added 12 points in his debut. They were the two Yellowjackets in double figures. Corry added five points and a team-high seven rebounds. Five players - Byrne, Hollis, Peterson, Corry and Harrison Woods (Mobile, Ala./C.F. Vigor) each had two blocks in the game. Defensively Peterson and Zach Schradle (Clayton, Wis.) had two steals each.

The Yellowjackets (0-1, 0-0 WIAC) will be on the road on Friday, November 22 when they travel to Minneapolis, Minn. to take on Augsburg College. Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.