Tonight, the Marauders didn’t wait quite so long or shoot the ball from as far away in U-Mary’s 69-67 win over North Dakota. No, tonight the Marauders decided to win the game at the free throw line with half a second left on the clock!

Down by as many as 10 points with 13 minutes left in the game, the Marauders took their first lead of the second half at 65-64 with about 1:45 remaining when Scott Guggenberger hit a lay-up off a feed from Geoff West. Travis Bledsoe would knock down two free throws with 1:23 left to give UND back a 1-point advantage. The Marauders would miss two shots, but a steal by West after North Dakota rebounded the second miss put the ball back in U-Mary’s hands with under 30 seconds remaining.

As the clock wound down, freshman forward Eric Erdmann made a move to the basket on the baseline and was fouled. The first year player stepped to the line with nine seconds remaining and drained both free throws to put U-Mary up 67-66.

UND had a chance to win the game when Ervin Youmans was fouled driving to the basket. Youmans sank his first free throw to tie the game with 1.7 seconds remaining but his second attempt rimmed out. Jordan Engelhardt grabbed the loose ball and was fouled with .5 seconds remaining, placing him at the line for two free throws. The sophomore from Bismarck, ND, calmly sank the pair to give U-Mary its second straight electrifying win.

Erdmann led all players with 23 points. He was 9-of-14 from the field and perfect on all three free throw attempts. Senior guard Lance Doppler added 14, the only other player to reach double-digits for U-Mary. Five players chipped in six apiece; Engelhardt, Guggenberger, West, Shetler and Zach Dosch. West led the Marauders with four assists and Guggenberger paced the squad with five rebounds.

Mark Kruse scored 15 for North Dakota. Youmans added 12 and Emmanuel Little contributed 10.

Despite shooting half as many free throws, the Marauders’ success at the line was key to the win. While UND hit 21-of-32 free throws, the Marauders nailed all 16 of their attempts.

The victory for the Marauders evened the season home-and-home series at one apiece, as UND defeated U-Mary earlier this season in Grand Forks, ND. The win is the second straight for the Marauders, who improved to 4-8. UND saw its four-game winning streak end as North Dakota falls to 6-5.