In a loss that typified the season, UND dropped its fifth heart-breaking North Central Conference game of the season Saturday night. Northern Colorado, last in the league, held on to beat the Sioux 74-71 at Butler-Hancock Hall.
"We just didn't get it done and that's the bottom line," UND coach Rich Glas said.
The loss officially also took the Sioux (11-7 NCC, 17-10 overall) out of the playoff picture.
Hunter Berg's running 3-point attempt from the right wing hit the rim and fell to the floor as the buzzer sounded.
"I didn't get a good shot at it,"Berg said of his last-second attempt."I just had to throw it up there."
The Sioux needed a win here and help from other teams to make the playoffs. But UND couldn't help itself against the Bears. Poor shooting for much of the game put the Sioux in deep hole.
However, UND did rally from a 16-point, second-half deficit and grabbed a 71-70 lead on Hunter Berg's 3-pointer with 1:08 remaining. But the Bears grabbed the lead for good 10 seconds later when Pierre Elize dropped in to free thows after he was fouled on a drive.
The Bears, however, missed the front end of the bonus twice in the final 30 seconds. On both misses, though, Northern Colorado managed to pull down the offensive rebound.
"Free-throw rebounding at the end was the key,"Glas said."We needed to get those rebounds. They just got away from us."
Jeff Higuera, who played sparingly, grabbed the second missed free throw. He fired the ball to Dean Grable, who was fouled with 20 seconds left. Grable converted both free throws, giving the Bears a 74-71 lead.
Hunter Reinke's 3-point attempt from the top of the key was off the mark with 8 seconds left. Alize, however, missed a break-away lay-up attempt with three seconds left. Marcus Travis came up with the rebound. The Sioux called timeout with 1.8 seconds left.
Travis in-bounded the ball to Berg, who fired UND's last chance at the playoffs just before the buzzer.
"It just wasn't in the cards,"Berg said."It seemed like nothing would go our way at the end."
Five of UND's seven NCC losses came by a combined 12 points.
"The one thing I'll always remember about this team is its never-say-die attitude,"Berg said.
| UND (71) | |||
| Name | FG | FT | Points |
| Mustard | 10-19 | 14-17 | 34 |
| Travis | 5-8 | 4-4 | 16 |
| Behrens | 1-5 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Berg | 4-12 | 0-0 | 11 |
| Larson | 1-4 | 2-2 | 4 |
| Jacobson | 1-2 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Ristvedt | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Badding | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Reinke | 1-7 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Totals | 23-61 | 20-20 | 71 |
| UNC (74) | |||
| Allen | 6-17 | 2-2 | 14 |
| Britt | 1-3 | 2-2 | 4 |
| Adle | 2-5 | 1-3 | 5 |
| Elize | 3-9 | 2-2 | 8 |
| Grable | 7-14 | 3-5 | 19 |
| Von Roenn | 2-3 | 1-2 | 7 |
| Higuera | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Martinez | 4-6 | 0-0 | 10 |
| Hansen | 3-3 | 0-1 | 6 |
| Sehringer | 0-2 | 1-2 | 1 |
| Totals | 28-62 | 12-19 | 74 |