Maryville, Mo.- UMD men's basketball upped the ante on an already prolific NCAA Tournament run when it defeated Emporia State 84-79 on Sunday to advance to its first ever Regional Championship game. The Bulldogs will take on No. 5 Southern Nazarene on Tuesday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m. for a spot in the Elite Eight. 
 
UMD started things off with a 2-0 lead courtesy of Austin Andrews. Both teams would keep the pace up and down the floor as they traded buckets, ESU leading 7-4 with 15:58 in the first half. Andrews would answer for the Bulldogs with a driving layup to make it a one-point game. Drew Blair would hit his first three pointer of the game with under 14 minutes to play to tie it at 9-9. However, the Hornets would see back-to-back buckets from Owen Long and Alijah Comithier fall to give them a 13-9 lead at the first half media timeout (12:45).
 
ESU would come out of the break with a quick 6-0 run to push the lead to double figures at 19-9. UMD would stop the drought with a Matttie Thompson free throw, leaving the score at 19-10 with under 10 minutes to play. Blair would drive and score a pretty pull-up to bring the Bulldogs within nine at the under 8 media timeout. Lincoln Meister would tip in a Blair miss to create a mini 6-0 run for the Bulldogs before Gage McGuire landed two free throws to bring the score to 23-16 ESU. Back-to-back threes from Jack Middleton brought the Bulldogs to within four at 26-22, setting the stage for a Charlie Katona layup to tie the game at 29 with 2:29 remaining. When Blair proceeded to sink another three shortly thereafter, the score was 32-29 UMD, the Bulldogs snagging their first lead since 2-0. It wouldn't last until halftime, but UMD was still level with ESU 36-36 through 20 minutes. Considering the fact that they'd been down as many as ten earlier in the half, the Bulldogs had certainly done some good work to reach that score.

Joshua Brown would hit back-to-back baskets to start the second half, resurrecting the UMD lead at 40-36. But a quick 7-0 Hornets run capped by a step-back three from Owen Long gave ESU its first lead of the frame at 43-40 with 16:23 left in the game . Katona would haul in a strong rebound and kick it out to Middleton to bring the Bulldogs within one at 46-45 ESU. Then, after a defensive stop, Blair would take it to the rack for an and-one, putting UMD back up front 48-46. It was back and fourth action until the next timeout at the 12-minute mark, the score ultimately reading 53-50 Bulldogs.
 
Shortly after, a tough reverse layup from Andrews would cement a new game-high lead of 57-50. The Bulldogs would keep the pace with another basket from Andrews followed by a make from Blair to outdo themselves, taking a nine-point lead at 62-53 with only eight minutes to go. Katona would then hit two free throws to stretch the UMD lead all the way to 11 at 63-53. 
 
The Hornets would bring the lead to under 10 after free throws from Atavian Butler, but Joshua Strong would make a smooth-running floater to push the Bulldogs lead back to 11 with 5:29 to play. After the next timeout, Katona landed a dunk to push the lead to 13. Strong continued with an impressive drive to give the Bulldogs yet another new touchstone of a lead at 15 with under four minutes remaining in the half. The Hornets would pressure the Bulldogs, but Blair would hit a tough jumper anyways as the shot clock ticked down to put the Bulldogs up 74-62.  Strong would then find Meister on an exclamation point of an alley-oop to make it 76-62 Bulldogs.

But the Hornets were far from done. ESU kept battling, and with just 31 seconds left, Long potted a jumper to leave UMD's lead at just five. 
 
Thus, the free-throw game began. Blair would knock down two freebies to set the score 80-73. The Hornets answered by grabbing a blocked shot and driving for what became a three point play of a dunk to bring the score to 80-76, UMD. Katona would step up to the line with 24 seconds for two free throws, knocking down the first before missing the second. But the rebound would go to Blair, who would be fouled himself and ultimately covert two more shots at the stripe to put the Bulldogs up 83-76 with 21 seconds remaining. Emporia State would not waste any time as Butler took it the length of the court for another three point play, making it 83-79. But it'd be Blair once again that would pot another free throw not long after to formulate the final score of 84-79 UMD.

Speaking of Blair, the redshirt-senior guard proved absolutely massive for UMD in this one. The Stevens Point, Wis. native potted a team-high 29 points to go along with four rebounds and two steals. Katona was also huge, pairing 13 points with 12 boards to seal his second-consecutive double-double all while dishing out five assists. Middleton also potted 13 points and had four boards of his own. Andrews scored 12 points to couple with seven rebounds and three blocks. As a unit, the Bulldogs shot 16-29 in the second half en route to going exactly 29-58 across the entire contest. 

The Hornet were led by Long, who scored 25 points and had five rebounds. ESU had three more double-digit scorers in Comithier (17), Butler (12), and Rogers-Schmidt (12). Rogers-Schmidt coupled his scoring with 13 rebounds. 

For post-game thoughts from Blair, Strong and UMD head coach Justin Wieck, check out the  press conference here: bit.ly/405V2UZ