Maryville, Mo.- One day removed from the women's program sealing a spot in the Elite Eight back in Romano, the University of the Minnesota Duluth men's basketball team followed suit in Missouri. The Bulldogs defeated No. 5 Southern Nazarene 62-52 in the Central Regional Final on Tuesday, March 14 to lock down an inaugural Elite Eight berth of their own. It's the very first time this has happened for an NSIC program, just the 13th time it's occurred across the DII field at-large.

Defense makes history.

Tuesday's contest was far from an offensive shootout- but really, such a thing shouldn't have been expected to begin with. The Storm have been a defensive unit all season, boasting an overall scoring defense heading into this game that had held clubs to an average of just 57.6 points. That was the third-lowest mark in the entire country. In the case of the Bulldogs, their defense seemed to be getting hot at just the right time. Across two games in the tournament, UMD was seventh across the postseason field in opposing field goal percentage (37%) and 12th in opposing three-point percentage (28.6%). 

It became clear pretty quickly what a collision course between these two forces was going to look like. At the 10:57 mark, just 23 total points had been scored between the two teams. It was a formula that was to this point favoring the Bulldogs, as they led by what was then a game-high of five at 14-9. That was UMD's way of countering what had been a 7-2 start for SNU. But a sudden Storm surge would put an end to this. Just under three minutes later, a Manny Dixon layup was sealing the deal on a 5-0 SNU stretch that allowed it to reclaim the lead at 15-14. 

With exactly 6:55 left in the first frame, Charlie Katona sank a three-ball to reclaim an advantage for UMD at 17-15. Nothing out of the ordinary- just a slim lead. It'd bulk up to as high as six at 24-18 leading up to the break before shrinking back down to as low as one at 24-23. Three free throws across two trips from Austin Andrews and Lincoln Meister pushed the lead up to two possessions at 27-23 by the end of the half. 

The stats through 20 minute certainly reflect a tight ballgame. No player across either team found themselves in double figures for scoring yet. Blair was closest with eight points. Joshua Brown had five, but he also had four rebounds and two assists. Meister, on the other hand, continued to be a monster, already sitting with more two blocks through 20 minutes. On the other end, two Storm players closed the half with seven points, those being Javon Jackson and Nick Davis. Jackson also had four rebounds. 

In a game like this, a four-point lead can simultaneously be the greatest safe haven in the world and the most unstable structure one could ever imagine. That's the game you play when points are so hard to come by on either side. In a strange bit of deviation from the themes of the contest, the Bulldogs had actually shot lights-out from deep through 20 minutes, going 5-9. But would such a thing be sustainable? Could something similar happen for the Storm down the stretch? After-all, this was a team that came into Tuesday with the 2nd best three-point shooting clip in the entire country at 41.1%. Regardless of how good UMD had grown to be at guarding the arc in March, it seemed unlikely that the Storm would go just 2-9 from that arena again. In short, there were lots of basketball left to be played, so many different ways that things could shake out. 

Well.. remember that innocuous 17-15 lead Katona helped the Bulldogs take back in the first? Past that point, UMD wouldn't trail the rest of the night. 

And it wasn't just that the Bulldogs were able to cling tight to marginal leads through 20+ minutes- UMD got to work at building up some real distance instead. It was a gradual process (one built by many two+ possession advantages) but at the 10:55 mark, it really bore fruit. That's when Blair potted a jumper to bolster UMD's advantage all the way into double figures for the first time all game at 44-33.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tick

It just seems like the minutes, the seconds, can't move any faster. It's not even that the game hit some kind of stalemate- UMD was still building upon its lead. With 5:28 to play, Blair potted a huge three to strengthen the Bulldog control to 15 at 50-35. 

Tick, tock, ti-

Uh oh. In the span of just over two minutes, the Storm managed to trim the deficit down to just a single digit. Score: 50-41 UMD. Time left: 3:23.

Tiiiiiiick tock, tiiiiick tock

Suddenly, you pull your hands away from your eyes. Peak at the clock first- just 1:47 to play. But what could the score be? 52-43. The lead was still nine. Almost two less minutes to work with to cut into it any more. 

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick

Rinse and repeat the process from before. Now, there's only 32 seconds left. Far past the point of fun and games, of loosely saying "there's still time" or, in our case, wishing there was none left at all. Whatever the margin is now is the real deal, and there's not much of a chance that it'll change very dramatically the rest of the way. The verdict? 57-48 UMD. 

Brave enough to watch the rest of the way now? You would've seen two teams playing the foul game. It was a game the Bulldogs won handily this time around, closing the last 32 seconds with a 5-6 mark from the stripe. That didn't just prove to be enough to withstand the Storm's scoring in that time, it actually kicked UMD's lead up a point to ten. And there it would stay until the final buzzer: Bulldogs 62, Storm 52. 

Drew Blair, man. He's something special. What an absolutely phenomenal performance it was from the redshirt-senior guard down the stretch of this one. Chances are that if you peeked in-between your fingers at the screen every so often, you probably saw Blair make a shot once or twice. He drained six of them in the final 20 minutes on nine attempts to close the half with, well, 20 points. Chuck in four rebounds to the mix, too. Elsewhere on the stat sheet, Joshua Brown was equally as big. The junior guard snagged a half-high seven rebounds down the stretch. 

Even with all of that in mind, perhaps the most impressive (and important) feat of the night was UMD's ability to calm the Storm from three-point land. SNU again shot sub 30% from deep in the second half, going just 4-18.

All-told, it was Blair that led the Bulldogs' offensive barrage into the Elite Eight with 29 points on 9-16 shooting. Brown was within an inch of a double-double, pairing nine points with 11 rebounds. And Katona had a strong night of utility, pairing seven points with six boards. These three ended up representing UMD on the All-Central Region Team, with Blair taking home Most Outstanding Player honors. 

Jackson led all Storm players in scoring on Tuesday with 18. Davis was second in line with 13, his coming on 6-12 shooting from the field and being paired with five rebounds. This duo made up the last two pieces of the All-Central Region squad. 

But wait, there's more. If you can believe it, the hoisting of the Regional Title wasn't the only bit of history that was made tonight. 

The man who received the honor of smacking UMD's team sticker firmly in the final open slot of the bracket board was Blair. In case you were wondering, that's not the historical mark of importance- although what it really is does make that moment feel all-the-more justified. With 28 points on the biggest stage he's played in in his entire career, Blair surpassed the 2000 mark in total scoring. He's got 2002 now… and if the Bulldogs keep dancing, he's got a real shot at the Bulldog record of 2045. 

Right at the front row of that ceremonial sticker moment was Brown. It's funny how the world works, isn't it? The junior guard walked into the biggest game of his life in need of just nine points to hit 1000 across his tenure as a Bulldog. How many does he score? Nine. 

It's been said once, but it'll be said again: keep surviving, keep making history. See you in Indiana on March 21.

For post-game thoughts from UMD head coach Justin Wieck, Blair and Katona, click here (skip to the 5:28 mark).