Duluth, Minn.- UMD men's basketball secured a big 92-89 victory in what was a gutsy overtime performance against Wayne State in Romano on Friday. The win elevates the Bulldogs' record to 15-6 on the season and propels their NSIC mark to 11-4.

The first half was one that UMD largely controlled. It drew first blood, for example, with the game's first two-possession lead at a score of 9-5. The Bulldogs still found themselves with such an advantage when the score read 11-7 with 14:51 left in the half. But momentum suddenly shifted in Wayne State's favor, a 5-0 Wildcats run leaving the visitors with a 17-16 advantage at their disposal at the 11:29 mark of the frame. A subsequent 5-0 UMD run would immediately be met by a 4-0 effort from Wayne to leave things knotted up at 21. 

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Joshua Strong. The sophomore guard saw to it himself that this one wouldn't be tied up for long, draining two-consecutive triples to push the Bulldogs up by six at 27-21 with 8:19 remaining until the break. The Wildcats would get within a score of drawing even again a few times before halftime, but UMD would ultimately maintain its advantage as the sides headed into the locker room. The Bulldogs couldn't quite hold what became a half-high lead of eight at a score of 33-25, but they still led by five at 37-32. 

The top of the scoring charts through 20 minutes on Friday largely resembled UMD's first half numbers from its effort against the Mustangs last Saturday. Leading the pack was Strong with 11 points on 4-6 shooting built largely by a 3-4 mark from beyond the arc. Right behind Strong was Jack Middleton, who compiled nine points on 3-5 shooting from deep. As a team, the Bulldogs went a commendable 8-19 (42.1%) from three-point land in the first half. Elsewhere on the stat sheet, Lincoln Meister already had seven rebounds to his name in just the first half alone.

Despite the fact that this game would eventually be pushed into extra time, the Bulldogs had a grip over much of frame number two, too. UMD's lead would fluctuate between a two-possession and one-possession figure throughout most of the early goings of the second half, but the very fact that it had the lead remained constant. And with just 13:45 left in the contest, that advantage was still seven at a score of 55-48. It looked like we may continue to play a game of mere lead fluctuation for the rest of the night- until…

In just over a minute of playing time, the Wildcats ran out on a huge 7-0 stretch to even up the game once more at 55-55. It was an uncharacteristic effort from this Wayne State bunch relative to what they'd done so far, but it sure was quite a time to work outside the box. What better way for the Bulldogs to respond than to respond in kind- UMD countered with a 9-0 run of its own to re-snag the lead at a commanding 64-55 mark. It took the Bulldogs just over two minutes to get this done, the clock reading 10:07. 

For the vast majority of the rest of this half, this run was enough of a cushion for UMD to sustain itself off of. With just 4:23 left, for example, a pair of Joshua Brown makes at the line extended the Bulldogs' lead back up to six at 69-63. The only thing that could seemingly go wrong would be for the Wildcats to get hot for just the second time in this game at perhaps the worst possible moment for the home team. 

The world has a cruel way of working itself out sometimes.

A 12-6 run. That's what the Wildcats ultimately created for themselves in the last four minutes and change of regulation.  It was a Nick Ferrarini layup with just 12 seconds left that officially sealed the deal, tying the contest back up for the first time in a long time at 75-75. That score would hold through some last-second shot efforts down the stretch, sending this one into an extra frame. 

Blair had done strong work in trying to see to it that his team walked out of regulation with the W. The guard tallied 11 points through 20 minutes on a 3-6 shooting effort combined with a 4-4 outing from the charity stripe. But the Wildcats had Jordan Janssen- and he simply wouldn't be stopped in the second frame. Janssen put up 18 points on a whopping 7-10 shooting from the field for Wayne State in half number two, residing as one of the main reasons why this one made it to OT.

Old habits die hard- extra frame, same early Bulldog control. By the 3:18 mark, UMD led by four at 79-75 off of a Blair bucket. A minute and change later, that lead had grown to six at 83-77 off of a Strong two-ball. A massive sequence from Brown that saw him parlay a steal into a score on the other end kept the Bulldogs' lead at six at 85-79, now with just 1:34 on the clock. An Austin Andrews free throw would balloon that advantage up to as high as seven at 86-79 with a mere 1:05 left to play. Two more Andrews freebies spanning across two trips to the line helped to maintain that seven-point threshold at 88-81 with a hair under 39 ticks left on the clock. It all seemed to be coming up Bulldogs here- but don't celebrate just yet. A massive and-one at the hands of Nate Mohr pulled the Wildcats within four at 88-84 with 31.8 left to play. And when UMD had to settle for just one make at the line in its next trip, a Ferrarini three-ball was enough to push this game to an 89-87 affair with 22.8 seconds still to go, an allotment that now seemed like an eternity. The tension only continued to grow- soon enough, the score was 90-89 UMD, and Wayne State was all-but barging the door down. 

But when his team needed him most, it was Blair that stepped up in the clutch. The guard settled in to sink two massive free-throws with just 8.3 remaining to put his team up by at least three, the Wildcats now only being able to tie rather than steal a victory in the final seconds. But Wayne State wouldn't even get that far. The Bulldogs decided to foul up three, inherently limiting the Wildcats' potential offensive output. It's a strategy that worked about as well as you could ever ask for it to- Mohr missed each of his two free attempts at the stripe, effectively ending the game at a final score of 92-89. 

What a massive performance it was from Blair in this one, who closed with 23 points on a foundation of 12-14 scoring from the free throw line. It was enough to land the redshirt-senior at sixth on UMD's all-time scoring charts, surpassing Dave Baker's 1694 mark with 1710 total points. And Blair finds himself just nine points shy of cementing himself in the top five, the current holder of that No. 5 spot being Josh Quigley with 1718.  Blair also had four assists and two steals to his name on Friday, two more team-highs.

Strong rode a huge first frame to 15 total points on the night, holding a 5-9 overall shooting mark and a 3-5 shooting figure from deep. Strong also had four rebounds and two assists. Brown had 13 points on 4-8 shooting to pair with five rebounds and two assists. The last of UMD's double-digit averagers on Friday was Middleton, who had 11 on 4-8 shooting overall and 3-6 shooting from three. It was two rotational Bulldogs that proved to dominate the boards in this one- Meister ended the night with eight rebounds while Mattie Thompson had seven. 

Even in defeat, it was an effort to remember for Wayne State's Janssen. The fifth-year forward tallied a game-high 31 points on 11-20 shooting from the field while amassing seven rebounds and three assists. Two other Wildcats closed at double-figures, those being Ferrarini (19) and Mohr (13).