VERMILLION, S.D. --Senior forward Emmanuel Little's basket with 0.9 seconds remaining lifted the sixth-seeded Fighting Sioux to an upset win over second-seeded South Dakota in the first round of the NCC Tournament. UND defeated the 25th-ranked Coyotes 78-76 to move on to Mankato, Minn., where the Sioux will play Augustana in the semifinals on Saturday.
The win also snapped UND's nine-game losing streak against the Coyotes and puts the Sioux in the NCC semifinals for the first time since 2000-01.
The Coyotes (22-6) jumped out to an early lead to start the game. Five free throws from Jesse Becker and Eric Hall helped them get out to a 10-2 lead. USD would expand that lead to 18-5 at the 14:16 mark after a free throw from Nick Morrell.
North Dakota would slowly start to chip away at the Coyote lead after that point. In a span of five minutes, Josh Doyle (Sr., Bettendorf, Iowa) scored eight points thanks to a pair of three-pointers. The Fighting Sioux would cut the lead down to two with 4:39 remaining the half after a layup by Wes Porter (Jr., Arvada, Colo.). The two teams would trade shots in the final minutes of the half as USD took a 42-37 lead into halftime.
The Sioux came out of halftime on a mission as they scored seven straight points to take their first lead of the ball game. Becker snapped their 7-0 run with a layup to tie the game at 44-44, but Denny Dumas (Fr., Surrey, British Columbia )answered immediately with a 3-pointer to regain the lead for UND. They would hold onto the lead for nearly seven minutes before Becker knocked down a pair of free throws at the 10:23 mark to give USD a slim lead.
The two teams would trade baskets for the final 10 minutes of the game. Free throw shooting held the Coyotes back from making a run to win the game. They went to the foul line 13 times in the game's final 10 minutes and made just seven attempts.
With the Coyotes leading by two with 1:42 left to play, UND tied the game when Little worked the shot clock down almost to zero before making a jumper to tie the game at 74-74. After USD missed on its next possession, O.J. Harrison (Jr., Danville, Ill.) grabbed an offensive rebound and made a layup to give the Sioux a 76-74 lead with 39 seconds remaining.
Becker would respond for USD as he got a layup of his own to drop with 28 seconds remaining to tie the game at 76-76. However, Little would again work the clock, this time the game clock, nearly to zero before floating in a jumper with 0.9 seconds left to lift the Fighting Sioux to the victory.
South Dakota was able to make its way to the foul line often in the game, unfortunately they were not able to make the most of it. The Coyotes shot 69.0 percent (20-of-29) from the charity stripe.
Hall finished the game with 17 points to lead USD. He was 5-of-10 from the field and 4-of-6 from the three-point line. Tyler Cain and Becker each had 16 points in the contest. Cain had two blocks to tie the USD career record for blocks. He now has 180 career blocks which is tied with Tim Hatchett (1986-90) for the school's all-time mark. He also had 13 rebounds and five steals.
Emmanuel Little led UND with 17 points. Doyle and Ervin Youmans (Sr., Hobbs, N.M.) each had 11 points while Travis Bledsoe (So., Minneapolis, Minn.) chipped in with 10.
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