 "Photo: Jami Bonner")
T-Bird senior guard Davis Baker scored 10 of his game-high 34 points to lead the SUU men’s basketball team to an 85-79 overtime victory over North Dakota State inside the Centrum Arena Thursday night.
“I finally saw in the eyes of my guys (saying,) ‘Hey, we’re going to win’”, T-Bird head coach Roger Reid said, recalling a time-out called in the final seconds of regulation. “You could see in their eyes and we knew we’ve worked too hard, we’ve practiced too hard, we’re going to win this game. We could have won at (UMKC), at Centenary. We’re not going to let this slip away.”
SUU (5-11, 1-3 Summit League) led by as much as 13 points in the first half and led 39-30 at halftime.
However, the T-Birds blew the lead and found itself behind by as much as 63-56 with 5:48 remaining in the second half. However, SUU used a 7-0 run in just over a minute to tie the game at 63-63. The run was capped off with a 3-pointer by Baker.
The two teams struggled to score for the next four minutes, but T-Birds found itself behind again, this time down 69-67 after sophomore forward Eric Carlson drained a two-pointer.
The T-Birds were able to answer after freshman center Matt Hodgson miraculously tipped in the ball after an ill-advised shot by Baker with 34 seconds left.
Hodgson was between two Bison defenders when he was credited with the tip-in. However, Hodgson said the ball ricocheted off of one of the NDSU defenders and went into the net.
“I didn’t touch (the ball) at all,” Hodgson said.
Neither team scored on their final possession and the game went into overtime.
Baker then took over in overtime as SUU outscored the Bison 16-10 to pick up its first conference win of the season. The T-Birds used a short 9-4 run to open the overtime period, which helped SUU pull away from NDSU.
“It felt good to finally get an overtime win,” Baker said. “We’ve let a lot of close games slip away from us, so it felt good to finally get one in overtime.”
In the overtime period, Baker attempted two 3-pointers and made them both. One of them was on a fast break off a behind-the-back pass by freshman guard Scott Friel, while the other was a shot while being closely guarded by a Bison defender and the shot clocking nearing zero.
“He’s like Kobe,” Hodgson joked, after the game.
Hodgson said he believed the win showed the character of the team.
“There was definitely a stage where we were flabbergasted and we were like ‘how did we let this go?’ so we were a little bit down,” he said. “But then everyone just started talking and the subs coming in were just possessed and we knew we weren’t going to lose this game and we didn’t. We just refused to lose.”
The T-Birds shot 52 percent from the field in the game, including 59 percent in the first half alone, while NDSU shot just 39 percent from the floor.
SUU outrebounded the Bison 44-35 in the win and outscored NDSU 23-14 in bench scoring and 18-14 in total assists.
Baker's 34 points tied his career-high, which was set last month in an overtime loss to Centenary. Hodgson added 12 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Freshman forward Jackson Stevenett finished with a career-high nine points and junior guard Ryan Brimley also added nine points.
Freshman center Dallin Bachynski played a crucial roll in the game, scoring eight points and grabbing eight rebounds, while swatting away two shots off the bench.
Senior guard Josh Vaughan scored 28 points and junior forward Michael Tviedt added 19 more to lead NDSU.
The two teams tied 11 different times in the game.
SUU will return to the court Saturday night against South Dakota State. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. inside the Centrum Arena.
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