By: COURTESY OF UMAINE-PRESQUE ISLE SPORTS INFORMATION
BANGOR, Maine - The Owls upset No. 2 ranked Husson Eagles in their own building despite several Eagle comeback bids, one of which forced overtime. The Owls swill now play on Saturday for a bid at the NCAA Tournament as they will travel to Farmington for the North Atlantic Conference Championship.
How it Happened:
The first half of this all-time classic was defined by defense as the Owls held the conference's best offense to just 25 points. They were aided by poor Husson shooting as they went 35% from the floor, and had just two threes in the half, while only getting to the line once. UMPI themselves struggled even more from the floor, shooting 31% but made five threes on a high volume of shots, and made a 9-0 run at the end of the half to go from 23-19 Husson to a 28-23 Owl advantage. It was 28-25 going into halftime.
It was more of a deadlock at the beginning of the second half. Team's traded buckets and the game never got more than a five point discrepancy, until Yuki Ishibashi hit a big three at the 5:44 mark to make it 55-48 UMPI. The Owls appeared to be peaking at the right time and hoped a late game push would be enough. They eventually grew the lead to 64-56 at the 2:24 mark but Husson quickly answered cutting it to six. Each team had an empty possession as more time came off, before the Owls took it all the way down to 47 seconds. Husson then got the ball and hit an insane and-one three-pointer which was really the only possible outcome for them to come back in it so quickly. After the free throw, the Eagles cut it to two points with 40 seconds left. It was a back-breaking blow, made worse by the Eagles tying it with nine seconds left.
The last second shot at the buzzer from the Owls barely missed and the game headed to Overtime at 64 points apiece.
The Owls scored the first seven points of overtime thanks to a couple of huge Tariq Martin buckets, including a hoop and harm. At 71-64 with 2:40 left, UMPI had the edge again, but four free throws in a row brought it back to a three-point game with 1:38 left. Then Tyson Enget delivered a huge three at 1:21 to go back up by six, much like the end of regulation.
Husson got to the rim quickly for a layup before the Owls missed the front end of a one-and-one and another quick bucket from Husson at the 21 second mark would make it 74-72. The Owl's AJ Creech went to the line with 18 seconds left, making one of his two attempts. Husson got down the floor but missed two golden opportunities underneath and the Owls got a huge board from Tariq Martin putting him back at the line with 8.4 seconds. Martin split the pair, but just one made it a two-possession game. The Owls wisely allowed Husson to go free to the cup for an easy two, but it took the game down to 3.2 seconds.
After a timeout to avoid a five-second violation, UMPI got the ball in to Tyson Enget who was immediately fouled with 2 seconds left. Enget sunk both free throws in a high pressure scenario sealing the UMPI win 78-74.
Next Up:
UMPI will play for the NAC Championship next Saturday at UMaine Farmington. UMPI sits at 15-12, now winners of six straight games and 13 of their last 15. It'll be the first time in school history that UMPI will play in a game for the chance of heading to the NCAA Division III National Tournament..