This was about unlikely as it gets.
Northern State erased a 14-point deficit in the closing minutes of regulation on the way to an 83-80 double overtime Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men’s basketball victory over Minnesota State Moorhead at Wachs Arena on Sunday.
“It’s hard to even recall all the big plays right now,” said Northern coach Saul Phillips. “There was just so many, that if we didn’t make them, the game would have been over, and we just kept making them.”
The Wolves trailed 68-54 when the comeback started with three and a half minutes left in regulation.
Kobe Busch nailed back-to-back three-point field goals to ignite a surge which saw the hosts score 14 unanswered points to eventually tie the game on a Jacksen Moni three-pointer with 36 seconds to go.
“I’ve been struggling the past few games, so I got in the gym and kind of got my shot right,” Busch said. “I guarantee with the practice I put in the last three days kind of got me to where I stuck my landing, made those two and then I got Moni with the pass. He made that one to tie it. That kind of gave us that momentum.”
Moni finished what Busch started, scoring the last eight points of the 14-0 run.
Moni ended up with a game-high 26 points on 6-of-9 from three-point range.
“I just had confidence. We’ve got great leaders like Sam (Masten) and (Jordan) Belka,” Moni said. “They just tell me to keep shooting, so that’s exactly what I did.”
An unsung hero during that pivotal run was Masten, according to Phillips.
“We were really searching for offense and Kobe hit the big shots, but the catalyst in that whole run was really Sam getting down hill and teeing people up right and left in terms of getting good shots,” Phillips said. “We’re better when we score off the pass than when we score off the drive.”
The Dragons missed two attempts at the end of regulation, before taking a five-point lead in the first overtime only to have Northern rally again. This time Gus Reede hit a big three-pointer before Belka scored in the lane to knot the score at 76-76. Again, Moorhead could not convert at the end of the first extra session.
The Wolves never trailed in the second overtime although the outcome was not determined until the closing seconds. Moni scored five more points to give Northern the edge. The Dragons missed two free throws and a pair of shots in the final minute, including a potential game-tying three on their last possession.
“We didn’t have unbelievable composure when we were digging our 14-point hole,” Phillips said, “but we had miraculous composure when it became winning time.”
Masten contributed 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists to the Northern total. Belka added 13 points.
Lorenzo McGhee led four Dragons in double figures with 19 points.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Wolves, who dropped a pair of tight games at home for the holiday break.
“We were on a two-game losing streak, very close games that we felt like we should have won and we just didn’t,” Moni said. “This was a great team win.”
Northern improved to 10-6 overall and 4-4 in the NSIC.
Phillips said Sunday’s victory should serve as a confidence booster for his young players.
“This a group that needs to learn how to win close games together and we took a step forward tonight. You look at our body of work in our last three games, a couple of bounces here or there and we could be 3-0 in our last three, so we still have confidence in ourselves,” Phillips said. “After losing two close ones, we needed one to go our way late and this one improbably did.”
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