With 2.7 seconds left, sophomore guard Trevor Entwisle circled around his own free throw line, gathered the ball and raced up court to attempt a heave from the half court stripe. His high-arcing shot looked good as it left his hands but it bounced off the rim singling the last attempt to send the game into overtime. The University of Minnesota Duluth fell 68-65 to the defending Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament champions Southwest Minnesota State Friday night inside Romano Gymnasium.

The lead changed hands 19 times and 12 times in the second half alone.  The last time the Bulldogs (2-5, 0-3 NSIC) switched the lead into their favor was with 1:12 left in the game. Sophomore guard Logan Rohrscheib was drilled hard to floor but managed to sink both his free throws to give UMD a 63-62 lead. The following possession, the Mustangs (7-3, 3-1 NSIC) turned it over and gave the Bulldogs a fast break layup to push the lead to three.

SMSU's Ryan Bruggeman, who led all scorers with 21 points, picked up his dribble and two Bulldogs swarmed him and Entwisle picked his pocket and raced the other way. Rohrscheib finished at the other end and gave UMD a 65-62 lead with 40 seconds remaining. The Mustangs defense would halt the offense the rest of the game. With UMD clinging to a 65-64 lead, Bruggeman picked up a steal off the full court press and, later, KJ Davis was able to hit two free throws to give the Mustangs the lead.

The Bulldogs came out of their timeout and looked to have a lane to the basket. That seam collapsed and Entwisle was forced to pull up and dish it into the middle. However, a pile of bodies was awaiting and SMSU was able to pull the ball out of the scrum. The Mustangs hit their final free throw attempts which led to the desperation three at the buzzer.

Rohrscheib led UMD with 19 points while sophomore forward Luke Harris had 12. Junior guard Mamadow Ngom had a team-high six rebounds to go along with his eight points.

UMD had its biggest lead with 12:30 to go in the opening half when it led 15-7 after a deep three from Harris. A 6:26 drought afterwards got SMSU back into the game. The Bulldogs outscored the Mustangs 41-38 in the second half, the second time this season UMD has done so in the last 20 minutes of a game.

The Bulldogs are back in Romano tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. when they square off against the University of Sioux Falls.