Ibu Jassey-Demba (Jr., Birmingham, UK) made a three-pointer with 1.2 seconds left to lead Minnesota Crookston past Minnesota State-Moorhead 68-65 in an NSIC game played at Nemzek Fieldhouse in Moorhead.
FIRST HALF –
Minnesota Crookston opened the game with a 7-0 run all scored by Harrison Cleary (Sr., Oak Creek, WI) in the first two minutes of the game. After MSU-Moorhead took an 11-10 lead with 14:48 to play in the first half, Chase Johnson scored two-straight UMC baskets tying the game at 14-14. Trailing 17-14, Reed Miller (Fr., Appleton, WI) made a three-pointer followed by a Malcolm Cohen (R-Sr., Detroit, MI) sparking a 15-0 run giving Minnesota Crookston a 29-17 lead. MSU-Moorhead answered with an 8-0 run pulling within 29-25. The Dragons tied the score at 33-33 before Harrison Cleary made a deep buzzer-beating three-pointer from the top of the key, giving the Golden Eagles a 36-33 halftime lead. “When we were defending and set on defense, they struggled,” explained Minnesota Crookston head coach Dan Weisse. “When they got in transition, they scored or got a lot of second-chance points to close the gap.”
SECOND HALF –
Minnesota Crookston opened the second-half with a free-throw followed by a Malcolm Cohen lay-up pushing the Golden Eagles’ lead to 39-33. MSU-Moorhead responded with a 7-0 run giving the Dragons a 40-39 lead. Malcolm Cohen buried a three-pointer putting the Golden Eagles ahead 42-40. Tied at 42-42, Cohen hit another three-pointer regaining a 45-42 lead for UMC. As both teams traded baskets down the stretch, Minnesota State-Moorhead took their largest lead of the night at 63-59 with 2:58 remaining. Chase Johnson (R-Jr., La Crosse, WI) scored a lay-up 16-seconds later, bringing Minnesota Crookston within 63-61. Another Dragons’ lay-up pushed the hosts ahead 65-61 with 2:17 to play. Harrison Cleary was fouled on the floor with 1:49, making both free-throws in the double-bonus trimming the Golden Eagles deficit down to 65-63. After a defensive stop, Cleary scored a left-handed lay-up off the backboard tying the game at 65-65 with 50-seconds left. On MSU-Moorhead’s next possession, Chase Johnson drew a charge giving Minnesota Crookston the basketball back with a chance to win the game and 23-seconds to play. Out of the Golden Eagles’ timeout, Harrison Cleary dribbled down the clock towards the mid-court line. As Cleary started towards the top of the three-point line, MSU-Moorhead sent an extra defender freeing up Ibu Jassey-Demba for a corner three-pointer in front of his own bench. Jassey-Demba shot took a high arc before dropping through the net with 1.2 seconds remaining with MSU-Moorhead’s half-court heave off the mark as Minnesota Crookston earned a 68-65 win. “If I had one of our five guys to shoot it, Ibu probably would’ve been my last choice,” joked Weisse. “Not anymore. In that situation, it was such a big shot. We call (the set) flat, which is Harrison (Cleary) just going one-on-one. We knew they were going to do some of that stuff. They ran a player at (Cleary) to double him. (Cleary) got into the lane and found Ibu (Jassey-Demba). He made it and I tell you for our program this is such a big win.”
“I just had the ball in my hands and knew there wasn’t much time left, so I had to take a shot,” added Ibu Jassey-Demba. “I had to believe in myself to save my team. I feel like this year’s team is more together. We want to win, and we know we can go far. We want to win. We want to win a championship.”
The win marked Minnesota Crookston’s third road win of the season, the most ever in a single season under Weisse, something that wasn’t lost on the coach, “it’s huge. To lead by 12 in the first half and let that lead slip away fall behind by four late in the game, it wasn’t looking great, but we found a way to win. It’s something we haven’t done in the past. We had no conference road wins last season. Now the mindset is different for our team, but this MSU-Moorhead team knows how to win so for us to pull this off is huge.”
Minnesota Crookston improves to 6-2 overall and 2-0 in NSIC play. The Golden Eagles look to complete the weekend sweep tomorrow in Aberdeen, South Dakota against Northern State at 6:00 P.M. on KROX. MSU-Moorhead drops to 5-3 and 1-1 in conference play.
| 1 | 2 | Final | |
| Minnesota Crookston | 36 | 32 | 68 |
| Minnesota State Moorhead | 33 | 32 | 65 |
| UMC | Points | Reb | Assists/Steals |
| Harrison Cleary | 33 | 3 assists | |
| Malcolm Cohen | 15 | 5 | |
| Chase Johnson | 8 | 7 | |
| Reed Miller | 6 | 4 | 2 steals |
| Ibu Jassey-Demba | 5 | 4 | |
| Brian Sitzmann | 1 | 6 | 2 assists |
