WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The Mules Basketball team used a big second half run to pull away from Minnesota-Duluth and earn a 78-60 season-opening win on Friday night at the UCM Multipurpose Building. The Mules outscored the Bulldogs by 14 in the second en route to the 18-point win.

The Mules (1-0) came out firing in their first game of the season, jumping to a 12-6 lead by the 13:39 mark. The Bulldogs (0-1) used a 6-2 spurt to pull back within two at 14-12 with 9:57 to play in the half, but a three-point play by freshman Jakob Lowrance pushed the lead back to five and D'Marnier Cunningham made one of two free throws to make it a six point advantage.

The lead was still six at the 8:01 mark when Tony Cochran buried a three and Marquiez Lawrence and Spencer Reaves followed up a UMD bucket with jumpers of their own to push the lead to 27-16. The lead grew to 12 at 30-18 with 5:05 to play in the first stanza, but the Bulldogs put the clamps on the UCM shooters and used a 13-2 run to pull within one at the 1:00 mark. Reaves buried a big three to send UCM into halftime with a 35-31 lead.

The opening minutes of the second half were back and forth with UMD again cutting the Mule lead to one, but layups from Lowrance and Cunningham and a triple from Kyle Wolf gave UCM a 46-38 lead with 16:19 to play in the game. Wolf buried another three a couple of minutes later and Isiah Sykes' layup to follow gave the Mules a 54-42 lead with 12:42 to play.

The Bulldogs never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way as the lead grew to as much as 18, which turned out to be the final margin of victory for UCM.

Lowrance and Reaves led four Mules in double figures with 13 points apiece. Lowrance added five rebounds, while Reaves had five assists, three boards to go along with a block and a steal. Brad Woodson finished with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, while Cunningham had 10 points.

UCM shot 30-of-58 from the field for 52 percent. The Mules made 8-of-23 from beyond the arc for 35 percent and 10-of-16 at the foul line for 63 percent. The Mules crashed the boards hard in the second half and finished with 38 on the night.

The Bulldogs were led by Pierre Newton's 16 points and 12 rebounds. Brendon Pineda was the only other UMD player in double figures with 11. The Bulldogs were 19-of-58 from the field for 33 percent, including just 3-of-21 from three-point range for 14 percent. They were 19-of-31 at the foul line for 61 percent as the teams were whistled for a combined 50 fouls.

UCM held a 42-28 advantage in points in the paint and turned 11 UMD turnovers in to 13 points.

The Mules return to action on Saturday afternoon hosting another Northern Sun foe in Concordia-St. Paul. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. at the Multi and the game can be heard live on 1450 KOKO and warrensburgradio.com with Bill Turnage on the call.