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The Winona State University men’s basketball team looked on in stunned silence as the University of St. Thomas celebrated an
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From left, Winona State's Travis Whipple, Quincy Henderson and Jonte Flowers walk off the court in disbelief after an 83-82 overtime loss to Division III St. Thomas Saturday at McCown Gymnasium. The loss snapped a 42-game home win streak for the Warriors. (photo by Katie Derus/Winona Daily News) |
83-82 overtime victory Saturday over the No. 1-ranked Warriors.
“This is enormous,” Archer said. “This is the biggest game I’ve ever played in. In high school I won a state title, but this makes that pale in comparison. To beat a team that was national champions two years ago and runners up last year is just amazing.
“We had nothing to lose, and they had everything.”
Division III UST snapped WSU’s 36-game home winning streak in dramatic fashion, but it wasn’t without some controversy.
The Warriors held a 75-73 lead when WSU’s Jonte Flowers was called for a blocking foul near midcourt as the final buzzer sounded. Flowers collided with Archer after the UST guard corralled a loose ball.
“Personally, I think that’s a no-call situation,” WSU coach Mike Leaf said, “but I didn’t have a great angle.”
A half-second was added to the clock, and Archer converted on both free throws, capping a 14-4 UST run in the final 2:23 of regulation.
In overtime, Archer hit a running floater in the lane with 29 seconds left to give the Tommies an 81-80 lead. Flowers responded with a hanging jumper in the paint to put the Warriors ahead by one with 17 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing possession, UST freshman guard Tyler Nicolai drained a baseline jumper to give the Tommies an 83-82 lead with eight seconds left.
After a WSU timeout, Flowers raced down the court and lost control of the ball in the lane. The Warriors never got a shot off.
Winona State (6-1) led by 11 with 5:30 left in regulation but committed six turnovers, due in large part to UST’s full-court pressure, and allowed the Tommies (3-1) to shoot 7-for-10 the rest of the way.
“I thought we were lackadaisical; I don’t think we played nearly our best defense,” said Leaf, whose team will open the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference season at Mary (N.D.) on Friday. “We have to make sure we’re playing top-notch basketball each and every game, and we didn’t bring our ‘A’ game tonight. We have to look at those things in a loss and, come Monday, we’ll work on those things and get ourselves ready for Mary.”
Nicolai, one of four guards employed by UST coach Steve Fritz to counter WSU’s size, finished with a team-high 19 points on 8-for-16 shooting. Archer, who scored five points in the final minute of regulation and added a diving steal at midcourt that led to a B.J. Viau layup to give UST a 72-71 lead with 32 seconds to go, scored 10.
“You schedule these nonconference games to try to get something out of it,” Fritz said, “and obviously we got a lot out of it today — maybe more than we expected.”
Flowers, who scored seven of WSU’s final nine points in the first half to give the Warriors a 40-35 halftime lead, led all scorers with 24 points and added six steals. John Smith scored 18 points on 8-for-16 shooting and had eight rebounds.
