Usually when one team leads for 39 minutes and 58 seconds of a scheduled 40 minute game, their chances of winning are pretty good.

 

Unfortunately for the Saints those chances fell to the floor, hard, when Hamline University scored the tying bucket just before the buzzer sounded in regulation time, and then opened the scoring in overtime for their first lead of the game.

 

Hamline (4-4) pulled out a miraculous comeback victory — down by 15 at the half — by outscoring the Saints 9 to 2 in overtime to take home a 76-69 win. The Saints were 0-for-8 from the field in overtime.

 

St. Scholastica (3-4) was on fire in the opening 20 minutes shooting 54 percent from the field, out rebounding the Pipers 19 to 13, forcing nine Hamline turnovers, and holding the visitors to only 31 percent from the field as the hosts took a 43-28 lead into the locker rooms.

 

The second half was a dizzying spin of fortune as the two teams basically flip-flopped most of those same stats.

 

Hamline found their shooting range and improved to 47 percent while the Saints lofted up an ice cold 29 percent figure. St. Scholastica had 14 turnovers, still out rebounded Hamline, but were outscored 39 to 24.

 

Yet, with 11 seconds left on the clock in regulation, the Saints still clung to a 2-point lead and after senior captain Brady Zubke (Laporte, Minn./Park Rapids Area HS) blocked an Eric Clute jumper then grabbed the rebound, the win looked safe and sound.

 

But Zubke came down out of bounds, and with five ticks left, Hamline made the most of their minimal chance as the Pipers' Tony Thrasher sank a jumper with 2 seconds on the game clock and knotted the score up for the first time since the opening tip-off.

 

The loss dampens the celebration sparked by Zubke at the 8:08 mark of the first period when he sank the first of two free throws to hit the 1,000 point career mark, only the eighth player in Saints history to reach that figure. Zubke finished the night with 15 points pushing his career total to 1,011.