ASHLAND, Wis. – The Northland College Men's Basketball team forced overtime against the University of Minnesota, Morris Friday night at the start of Upper Midwest Athletic Conference play but was unable to walk away with the win falling 96-88 in Ashland, Wis. Langston Flowers knocked down a big three to tie the game up at 77-77 in the final minute of play to force overtime.
 
Drew Lindberg started his career-high game with the first points coming from a three-pointer. The Jacks were held quiet for four minutes but after a pair of made free throws from Blake Richard, the score was knotted at five all. With his seventh point of the game, Richard gave Northland its biggest lead at four. The lead bounced back-and-fourth for the remained of the first half with Tyler Tuura giving the Jacks their last lead of the half with under two minutes left to go up 33-31. The Cougars ended up on top 39-36 going into the half after a three-pointer from Blake Munson.
 
UMM started the second half with an 8-to-2 run extending its lead to 47-38. The Jacks started to build something scoring on back-to-back positions starting with a layup from Jahlani Thornton followed up by a jump shot from Lindberg. Northland continued to chase the lead going down by as much as 11 with over eight minutes to play. Lindberg made another layup, followed by a three-pointer from Flowers to pull within five, but UMM answered with an eight-point run. In the last two minutes, the Jacks trailed 74-65, Northland scored on its next three possessions to make things interesting. In the final minute, Flowers scores two huge buckets and the defense makes some big stops to force overtime.
 
After not having the lead in the second half, Flowers started the overtime period where he left off scoring two free throws to put NC on top 79-77. That was the last time the Jacks had the lead the Cougars followed with a four-point run and Northland chased them the rest of overtime falling 88-96.
 
The Jacks had one of their better games from the field, shooting 26-of-62 (41.9%), 9-for-32 from three (28.1%), and 27-33 (81.8%) from the free throw line including going 12-for-12 in the first half. Lindberg had a career game with 30 points.  Flowers was right behind him at 17 and Richard and Tuura also reached double-figures at 15 and 10 respectively. Jordan Brennan dished out four assists with also leading the team with four steals.
 
Defensively, Brennan and Lindberg led the team in rebounds snagging seven. Ben Smith was third on the team with five. The Jacks had three blocks in the game coming from Smith, Thornton and Tuura.
 
The Jacks host Crown College tomorrow (Saturday) for another UMAC competition with tip off set for 4:45 p.m.
 
Northland College is an NCAA Division III institution located in Ashland, WI. The LumberJacks and LumberJills sponsor 14 varsity sports and compete in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, Midwest Lacrosse Conference, and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.