The first half was a back and forth battle that featured four ties and 10 lead changes as neither team could build more than a five-point cushion. The visiting Falcons (3-0, 1-0 AMC), who received votes in the NAIA Division II preseason poll, took their biggest lead of the half at the 5:36 mark when Eric Dummermuth’s offensive rebound and tip-in put Notre Dame on top 25-20.

However, MVNU (2-2, 0-1 AMC) answered with a 14-4 run of its own to take its biggest lead of the game at 34-29 with 1:55 left in the half as junior forward Adam Grimm converted a three-point play opportunity. Senior center Bryce Sanborn (left) added six points during the surge, while freshman guard Ben Severns drained a three-pointer off the bench.

The only scoring the remainder of the half came in the form of a trey by the Falcons’ Al Miller as the Cougars took a 34-32 lead to the locker room at the break.

Sanborn led MVNU with a first-half double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Grimm tossed in seven points off the bench. Short and Severns added six points, and the Cougars outrebounded the Notre Dame 18-17 in the half. MVNU shot 41.2 percent from the field (14-for-34), 20 percent from three-point range (2-for-10), and 80 percent from the free throw line (4-for-5).

Miller and Dummermuth paced the Falcons with eight points apiece with Dummermuth grabbing five rebounds. Notre Dame turned the ball over 11 times, but the Falcons made up for it by shooting a blistering 56 percent from the field (14-for-25). They also shot 33.3 percent from three-point range (3-for-9) and 16.7 percent from the free throw line (1-for-6).

Notre Dame jumped out to a 59-44 lead over the first 11 and half minutes of the second half as Curtis McClure scored nine points and Dummermuth added six points.

However, over the next four and a half minutes, the Cougars began to claw their way back into the game as MVNU used a 13-1 run to close the gap to 60-57 on a layup by Sanborn with 4:05 to play. Senior wing Travis Brown went 4-for-4 at the free throw line, senior guard Austin Kaiser went 3-for 5 at the charity stripe, and Short, sophomore guard Robbie Taylor, and Sanborn each added a basket to fuel the comeback.

After a steal by Kaiser on the next possession, Taylor had a chance to tie the game, but his three-pointer bounced off the rim and that would be as close as the Cougars would get the rest of the way as the Falcons used a 17-7 run to close the game to post the 77-64 victory. Notre Dame went 8-for-12 from the free throw line down the stretch, while MVNU went just 2-for-9 from the field over the final 3:32.

"We played a solid 30 minutes of basketball, but against good teams that have experience playing together you have to match them for an entire game,” said MVNU coach Matt Moore. "I thought we did a nice job in the first half of battling through to hold a lead and then coming out of the break we just were not able to pick up where we left off.”

"(Notre Dame) does a great job of covering a lot of area in their zone, and once we missed a couple of shots the basket got smaller,” Moore added. "I thought when we got Bryce the ball good things happened and we need to continue to do that. I liked how our guys battled back from 15 points down to cut it to a one possession game, but we just could not get over the hump as Robbie’s three to tie the game fell short.”

Sanborn nearly pulled off his second 20-20 game of the season as he finished with 19 points and matched his career high with 22 rebounds to come up one board shy of tying the school record for the second time in a week. Short and Grimm added 10 points apiece, while Brown tossed in eight points and Taylor dished out four assists. The Cougars finished the game shooting 33.8 percent from the field (22-for-65), 15 percent from three-point range (3-for-20), and 73.9 percent from the free throw line (17-for-23). Thanks to Sanborn’s effort on the boards, MVNU outrebounded the Falcons 41-37.

Dummermuth, who was a high school teammate of Sanborn’s at Dover High School, finished with 23 points and seven rebounds to lead Notre Dame, while McClure contributed 13 points and seven rebounds off the bench. Nick McCartney and Miller added 12 and 11 points respectively as they both dished out four assists apiece. The Falcons shot 54.9 percent from the field (28-for-51), 33.3 percent from three-point range (6-for-18), and 51.7 percent from the free throw line (15-for-29).

Things will not get any easier for the Cougars as they will host NCAA Division II Ashland University in the Physical Education Center on Saturday night. The non-conference game will tip off at 7:30 p.m.

"We just cannot get discouraged because we are doing good things at both ends of the floor,” said Moore. "We just have to come out and put together a complete game now.”