UND's game plan did not call for the Sioux to fall behind by 17 points in the second half, especially at home.
With one game-plan scrapped, the Sioux turned to another. This one called for an amazing comeback, one that ended with UND taking an 80-77 overtime win over St. Cloud State on Friday night at Hyslop Sports Center.
The win, coupled with North Dakota State's home loss to Minnesota State-Mankato, left the Sioux in a first-place tie with the Bison in the North Central Conference men's basketball race. The Sioux improved to 5-1 in the league and 11-4 overall.
With 13:21 to play, however, a first-place tie looked out of reach as the Huskies, backed by some torrid 3-point shooting from Enoch Dix and Forrest Witt, opened a 49-32 advantage.
The Sioux, it appeared, were going to pay dearly for their sluggish first half, which ended with St. Cloud holding a 28-24 lead over poor-shooting UND.
"We lacked intensity,"UND coach Rich Glas said."They had us on our heels. It was a fawn-in-the-headlight look for us."
But the Sioux defense stiffened. And UND slowly chipped away at the 17-point deficit. Hunter Reinke's steal and layup with 51 seconds left gave UND a 66-65 lead, its first of the game.
Two Rado Rancik free throws, however, gave St. Cloud a 67-66 lead with 32.5 seconds left. But the Sioux forced overtime when Chad Mustard hit one of two free throws with 22.8 seconds left.
In overtime, the Sioux controlled the play. Hunter Reinke's 3-pointer from the top of the key gave UND a 70-67 lead. The Huskies never led and missed a chance to force a second overtime when two 3-point attempts by Dix and Witt in the final 11 seconds were off the mark.
UND's comeback wasn't backed by a major run. It came from hard work and determination in the paint.
With an advantage in experience and muscle, UND repeatedly went inside after it trailed by 17. Mustard and Reinke both scored 19 while Kyle Behrens added 11 and 12 rebounds.
"At halftime, (assistant) coach (Ben) Jacobson was all over the post players,"Mustard said."They have young post players and we weren't taking advantage of it. And there wasn't any electricity in the locker room before the game.
"Then we missed a lot of layups inside in the first half and that added to the flat start.
After UND trailed 49-32, 25 of the next 35 UND points came from its inside play.
"They started pounding the ball inside,"St. Cloud coach Kevin Schlagel said."They did what they had to do. They took the ball to their horse (Mustard) and he's as good as any post player in the league."
And Reinke also continued to show that he will be a force offensively inside after doing most of his scoring from the perimeter the past two seasons.
"We went to our strength and made them pay down low,"Reinke said.
The Sioux, who shot only 35 percent in the first half, were considerable sharper in overtime, scoring on 7 of their 9 possessions.
St. Cloud, which fell to 3-3 in the NCC and 9-6 overall, was led by Dix, who scored 24 points. The Huskies made 7 of 19 3-pointers, but they made six in a 51/2-minute stretch of the second half, which helped them open their 17-point lead.
| UND (80) | |||
| Name | FG | FT | Points |
| Mustard | 5-14 | 9-14 | 19 |
| Travis | 4-7 | 3-5 | 11 |
| Behrens | 5-11 | 1-3 | 11 |
| Berg | 2-4 | 1-2 | 7 |
| Jacobson | 3-5 | 0-0 | 7 |
| Larson | 2-3 | 0-0 | 6 |
| Ristvedt | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Reinke | 7-17 | 4-5 | 19 |
| Badding | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Totals | 28-63 | 18-29 | 80 |
| St. Cloud (77) | |||
| Witt | 4-11 | 2-2 | 12 |
| Dix | 8-18 | 4-5 | 24 |
| Rancik | 7-14 | 7-14 | 21 |
| Brandt | 4-11 | 0-0 | 8 |
| Schoenrock | 2-4 | 3-4 | 7 |
| Coring | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Bishop | 1-3 | 0-0 | 3 |
| Jacobson | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Schmidt | 0-0 | 2-2 | 2 |
| Johnson | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Totals | 26-64 | 18-27 | 77 |