MOORHEAD, Minn. – A one point win over the Northern State Wolves on Sunday afternoon did not come easily for the Minnesota State University Moorhead Dragon men's basketball team as they picked up their eighth win of the season, 72-71.
The Dragons move to 8-5 overall and 5-4 in the league play while they handed NSU their eighth loss moving their record to 6-8 overall and 2-8 in the NSIC.
The Wolves took the early lead in the game, going up 19-10 six minutes into the game. Derek Hoellein aided the Wolves to their nine-point lead, hitting two three-pointers within a minute to bump up his team's lead.
MSU Moorhead slowly chipped at NSU's lead as
Alex Novak tied the game on a jumper at 27 with five minutes left to play in the first half.
Jake Driscoll scored seven of the team's next 13 points to put the Red and White ahead at half, 43-47.
The half ended on a steal by
Andrew VanHavermaet as he stopped short of the three-point line and sunk a long range shot as time expired.
Driscoll scored 14 of his game leading 19 points in the first half, going 5-for-7 from the field, including 3-of-3 from long range.
The lead changed four times in the second half; with the game tied six times before the Dragons built a six-point lead with 4:08 left to play.
After a three-pointer by the Wolves' Tom Parks and two free throws by Collin Pryor, the Dragon lead was cut to one with 2:03 left to play.
With 46 seconds left to play, D.J. Hamilton was called for a foul just after releasing the ball on a drive to the hoop, which was counted, to put the Dragons up by three. This allowed Dustin Tetzlaff to have two shots from the charity stripe, pulling the Wolves within one as he sunk both attempts from the line.
On the Dragons next possession, a jumper rimmed out as the Wolves grabbed the board and took their possession down the floor, only to lose the ball to Hamilton who stole the ball out of David Lane's hands.
The Dragons couldn't come up with a free throw with three seconds left, giving the Wolves one final shot that bounced off the rim, giving MSUM the win.
Tarell Clark had 13 points in the game as he had four assists. Both Novak and Hamilton finished the night with 10 points. Novak had nine boards, while Hamilton had five rebounds and three assists.
The Dragons will return to action on Friday as they will travel to Fayette, Iowa, to face the Upper Iowa Peacocks at 8 p.m.
