St. Bonifacius, MN - The Polars Men's Basketball team faced off with the Minnesota Morris Cougars on Saturday and came out on top by a final score of 64-56.

An electric start to the game pushed the Polars out in front 18-2 behind buckets from Cade Carroll, Jacob Masek, Jacob Van Dam, Micah Ladd, and Tyrus Buckner. The Polars saw a lull in scoring over the course of the next four minutes as Morris went on a 9-7 run to cut into the Crown lead. The Cougars slowly chipped away throughout the final ten minutes of the half and started to climb back to within striking distance as the half ended 34-26 in Crown's favor.

Back and forth scoring from the two teams saw the score stay at an 8 point lead for Crown with 15 minutes to play in the contest. Buckets from the Cougars continued to keep pace with Crown until the Polars scored 7 unanswered points from Jacob Van Dam, Alec Testerman, and Tyler Smith to extend the lead back out to eleven points as the score was 53-42. With under three minutes to play a made jumper and two made free throws narrowed the score to 55-53 the closest the Cougars had been since the basket from Carroll in the first minute of the contest. Back to back clutch buckets from Micah Ladd extended the lead to seven points and free throws from Carter Behne and Cade Carroll sealed the game as the Polars came out on top 64-56.

Buckner led the scoring with 15 points in the contest on five made baskets and a perfect 5-5 from the charity stripe. Ladd followed closely behind with 13 points and Behne scored 10 points as he went 2-2 from three point range. Cade Carroll continued his dominant stretch on the boards as he notched 10 rebounds. Jacob Masek totaled 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Buckner and Smith both had two blocks.

As a team Crown shot 41.4% from the field going 23-56 and 27.3% from three point range going 6-22. Both teams evenly matched with 11 second chance points. The Polars held the edge in fast break points with 9 points.

Crown moves to 10-3 on the season for the best start in the NCAA-era (since 2008) as they reach ten wins in thirteen contests. The Polars move to 3-0 in UMAC play and will return home next weekend for matchups with Martin Luther on Friday, January 12th at 7:15pm and the other conference leader Bethany Lutheran on Saturday, January 13th at 4:45pm.