Northern Michigan University’s Trevor Polite, front, drives the baseline as he is defended by Lake Superior State’s Omar Suleiman during their GLIAC Tournament semifinal men’s basketball game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on March 7. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

NORTH CANTON, Ohio — There’s a reason college athletes are college-age — they can take a heart-thumping, maybe almost heart-stopping finish to their games.

Like the one the men’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University pulled out on Saturday evening, nipping Rockhurst 86-85 with a furious comeback in the final 32 seconds.

“I’ve never seen a comeback like that,” Wildcats head coach Matt Majkrzak said in an NMU Sports Information news release detailing the game. “We kept fighting, and you go down to the final horn, and we win.” 

Majkrzak just a week ago was voted the GLIAC Coach of the Year for the second time in his tenure.

Saturday’s victory came in the opening round of the Midwest Regional, part of the national NCAA Division II Tournament, that is being played at the home of regional top seed Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio.

The victory propelled the No. 5-seeded Wildcats (28-6) into the regional semifinals, where they were set to play host and No. 1 Walsh (28-3) on Sunday evening.

A win in that game would propel NMU into the regional championship that would stay in North Canton against the winner of the other semi between No. 3 Michigan Tech (27-6) and No. 2 Grand Valley State (26-6).

While the first two rounds were being played on back-to-back days, the NCAA isn’t making teams play three straight days, as they didn’t schedule the finale until Tuesday, tentatively at 7 p.m.

Back on Saturday, though, Northern and Rockhurst, which finished its season at 23-7, played a back-and-forth first half, though the last time the Wildcats were ahead was at 29-28 with 3:54 left in the first half after a Cal Klesmit jump shot.

The Hawks retook the lead less than 30 seconds later and wouldn’t give it back until the game’s final seconds.

Rockhurst, which won the regular season title in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, built a 38-31 lead at halftime that expanded to as many as 12 points on three occasions in the second half.

The final time was 61-49 with 9:54 left on a pair of free throws by the Hawks’ Drenin Dinkins, who finished as the game’s leading scorer with 35 points.

Northern’s Dylan Kuehl came close with 31 as he made 11 of 20 from the field, though only 1 of 6 on 3-pointers, adding 8 of 11 free throws along with three rebounds, a game-high six assists and not a single turnover in 37 minutes playing time.

“We have a great family, and we’re not ready to be done,” Kuehl said in the NMU SI release. “We were not going to give up, no matter what the scoreboard said.”

He was recently crowned GLIAC Player of the Year and GLIAC Defensive Player of the Year.

“We were going to go down swinging as hard as we could,” Kuehl added. “We kept going as hard as we could, and look what happened…. We are still going.”

NMU still had a double-digit deficit, 70-60, with 5:17 left, and even with 39 seconds to go, was behind 83-76 following a pair of free throws by the Hawks’ Jaylen Wesley.

Heart-stopping measures by the Wildcats were called for, considering it was a three-possession game with barely more than one full possession of the shot clock left.

Seven seconds after getting the ball back, Kuehl picked up one of his two assists in last minute, setting up Klesmit with his third of four triples in the game — yes, he would still have time to sink another one.

That made it 83-79 with 32 seconds remaining. Forced to foul to keep Rockhurst from running down the clock, Dinkins was sent back to the free-throw line just three seconds later as he made 1 of 2 for an 84-79 advantage for Rockhurst.

Northern turned right around and Kuehl again assisted on Klesmit’s final 3 with 23 seconds remaining to get it back to a one-possession game, 84-82, for the first time since the last two minutes of the first half.

Dinkins was again fouled just two seconds later, with 21 seconds to go, and he again made 1 of 2 to put the Hawks up 85-82.

With Rockhurst likely collapsing on Klesmit after his shotmaking, Kuehl kept the ball himself and got inside for a layup and foul. He finished off the “traditional” three-point play by hitting the free throw to tie the game 85-85 with 14 ticks remaining.

Now needing a stop, the Northern defense forced a miss, according to NMU SI, and after securing the defensive rebound, the Wildcats’ Trevor Polite was fouled with just five seconds remaining.

Sent to the line for what could easily be argued was the most important free throw try of his career, he made the first one to put his team on top. Though he missed the second one, that might have kept Rockhurst from setting up a play as Dinkins missed a jumper at the final buzzer to allow the Yoopers to advance.

In the end, NMU put together a 10-2 run in those final 32 seconds.

Klesmit finished with 18 points, making 4 of 6 on 3-pointers, 6 of 10 overall from the field and 2 of 2 free throws. He added a pair of rebounds.

Bennett Basich added 14 points to the winning cause, hitting 6 of 8 from the field, all 2-pointers, adding in four rebounds and two assists.

Teammate Jackson Dudek scored eight points while pulling down a team-high six rebounds to go with two assists. Charlie Miller also had seven points, hitting a pair of triples, and four rebounds.

In addition to Dinkins’ game-high 35 points — despite the pair of last-minute misses, overall he was 12 of 15 on free throws — Wesley added 23 points.

Both teams shot just a shade over 50% from the field, NMU 31 of 60 and Rockhurst 28 of 55, though the Hawks only shot half as well on 3s, 20% (3 of 15) to 40% for Northern (10 of 25).

And the Wildcats had two fewer rebounds, 27-25, and two more turnovers, 11-9.

In the game’s beginning, the Hawks raced out to a 5-0 lead before NMU caught them and went ahead 9-8 with 13:38 left in the first half after a pair of Kuehl free throws.

With one tie at 21-21 thrown in, Northern kept the lead for more than nine minutes until Rockhurst’s Jaden Flournoy put in a layup with 4:04 left before intermission to put his team back on top, 28-27.

After a couple more tradeoffs and a tie, the Hawks kept the lead for final 3 1/2 minutes of the half, not surrendering it until NMU’s great last-minute rush at game’s end.

“Anytime you win an emotional first-round game, it’s hard to come back and win the second round,” Majkrzak said about Sunday night’s follow-up. “It will be a road game against a great team in Walsh.”

In the other first-round games, Walsh dropped No. 8 William Jewell 77-70 as the Cavaliers nursed a single-digit lead throughout the second half, Michigan Tech dropped No. 6 Lake Erie 83-73 as 2025 GLIAC Player of the Year Marcus Tomashek poured in 34 points, and Grand Valley outdefensed Ashland 59-45 as four Lakers scored between nine and 11 points and kept the Eagles to just 13 first-half points.

NMU 86, Rockhurst 85

Saturday at North Canton, Ohio

NCAA Division II Midwest Region first round

Summary (field goals, free throws, total points)

NORTHERN MICHIGAN — Kuehl 11-8-31, Klesmit 6-2-18, Basich 6-0-14, Dudek 3-2-8, Privet 1-0-3, Miller 2-1-7, Polite 1-1-3, Hinson 1-0-2. Totals 31-14-86.

ROCKHURST — Dinkins 10-12-35, Wesley 8-7-23, Flournoy 4-3-11, Deaver 3-1-7, Mong 2-2-6, Eiland 1-1-3. Totals 28-26-85.

Halftime score: Rockhurst 38-31

FG shooting: NMU 31 of 60 (51.7 percent), Rockhurst 28 of 55 (50.9 percent); 3-point shooting: NMU 10 of 25 (40 percent), Rockhurst 3 of 15 (20 percent); FT shooting: NMU 14 of 19 (73.7 percent), Rockhurst 26 of 36 (72.2 percent); Rebounding, NMU 25 (Jackson Dudek 6), Rockhurst 27 (Jaylen Wesley 7); Assists, NMU 13 (Dylan Kuehl 6), Rockhurst 8 (Wesley 3); Steals, NMU 4 (4 players with 1 each), Rockhurst 10 (Wesley 3); Turnovers, NMU 11, Rockhurst 9.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the game. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.