Wests Rip Up Northern Sun

GEOFF and JASON WEST KEY HEART-STOPPING HOOP COMEBACKS

January 17, 2009
Bismarck, ND -- For the second consecutive night, the University of Mary pulled off a stunning comeback at home as the Marauders rallied from a 20-point second half deficit to defeat Bemidji State University 80-76 in Northern Sun men's basketball.

On Friday night, U-Mary rallied to defeat the University of Minnesota Duluth 80-77 in overtime after Jason West hit a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime. While the Marauders didn't need anything quite as dramatic to defeat the Beavers, there were many clutch plays down the stretch.

Bemidji State led from the start, building a 28-11 lead before entering intermission up 46-31. That lead for BSU eventually bloomed to 20 points at 57-37 with 14 minutes left in the game.
Suddenly the fortunes turned and the Marauders found themselves on a 28-7 run to take a 65-64 lead when Ryan Malm hit a layup off a feed from fellow freshman UT Udo with 6:41 left in the game. It was the first lead of the night for the Marauders. During that run, Geoff West hit two treys and scored 10 points. Mark Bakkum knocked down two treys and two free throws to score eight points.

After BSU hit two free throws to regain the lead, Udo dropped in a three-pointer. Two Beaver layups pushed BSU back in front 70-68, but Jordan Wilhelm responded with a trey for a 71-70 U-Mary lead with 2:42 left. After two free throws by Jason West, BSU's Jake Lindstrom knotted the game at 73-73 on a trey with 1:37 on the clock. Then it was time for Wilhelm to take control of the game.

Wilhelm hit a layup, was fouled, and converted the three-point play at 1:09 for a 76-73 lead. With BSU looking to close the gap, Wilhelm blocked a layup attempt by Lindstrom and Danny Sandvig snagged the biggest rebound of the night with 51 ticks on the clock.

After a timeout, Jason West missed a layup but Geoff West found the rebound, was fouled and hit both shots to make the score 78-73. After Lindstrom nailed a trey with five seconds left, Wilhelm was fouled and made both of his free throws to seal the 80-76 win with four seconds remaining.

Geoff West again led the Marauders, coming off the bench to score 19 points for the second straight night. He was 3-of-6 on treys, 6-of-7 at the line and added five rebounds and two steals. Wilhelm scored 15 points, made two treys, and led all players with eight rebounds. Jason West scored 11 points and went 5-of-6 at the free throw line. Sandvig added seven rebounds and five points.