Freshman Mike Osborne was the hero in the closing seconds for North Park.  Photo for North Park athletics by Paige Wilcox

Freshman Mike Osborne was the hero on North Park's Senior Day as the Vikings stunned No. 2 Illinois Wesleyan. Elsewhere Bethel roughed up No. 5 St. John's, a sophomore scored 50, and the top-ranked Hope women had an unusual starting lineup on its Senior Day. 

• Saturday's scoreboard: Men | Women
• More men's news releases | Women's news releases

Osborne grabbed a long offensive rebound and drilled a jumper with 2.2 seconds left to cap a frenetic finish, as North Park defeated No. 2 Illinois Wesleyan, 76-74.

North Park hit back-to-back-to-back buckets to tie the game up at 62 with 8:20 left in the game. From that point forward there were three more ties and four lead changes. Toby Marek hit a big 3-pointer with 2:45 left to give North Park (3-10) a three-point lead, and the teams combined to miss six consecutive free throws before Peter Lambesis finally answered with a three for IWU (5-1) to knot the game at 74.

"We drew it up where Toby was going to get the ball in his hands and he did and he drove the ball," North Park coach Tom Slyder said after the game, "and Toby had to give it up and he didn't get a good look. And the ball just happened to find Osborne wide open on the wing, which ... I thought it was in when he let it fly."

But it was short, off the front rim, and Osborne chased it down in the corner, putting up his 19-footer game-winner. After a timeout, Illinois Wesleyan threw a baseball pass three-quarters of the length of the court but ended up turning it over on a travel. 

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Senior Toby Marek set the table for freshman Mike Osborne, who grabbed his own rebound before knocking down a last-second shot to give North Park the upset win over No. 2 Illinois Wesleyan! pic.twitter.com/fVGvrX7SVU

— North Park Vikings (@VikingsNPU) February 27, 2021

Izaiah Sanders led the Vikings in scoring with 16 points, while adding six rebounds. Marek scored 15, all from beyond the arc. North Park shot 12-for-24 (50%) from 3-point range in the win. The Vikings will play Millikin on Thursday in the play-in game for the CCIW tournament.

In a battle between two teams that made the 2020 NCAA Tournament, No. 6 Yeshiva prevailed over St. Joseph (Conn.), 78-71. The Blue Jays cut the deficit to four on two free throws by Jordan Powell with 6:23 to play. The Maccabees scored seven of the next eight points to extend the lead back to 10 and held a three-possession lead into the final minute. Gabriel Leifer finished one assist shy of a triple-double (13 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists) and also had four blocks for Yeshiva (5-0). Powell posted 20 points and 11 rebounds for St. Joseph's (Conn.). The teams will meet again in West Hartford on Monday night. It was the 34th consecutive win for Yeshiva, which is the third-most in Division III history, according to D3sports.com research.

Bethel left Collegeville, Minnesota, with a victory for the first time since 2009 as the Royals led wire to wire, rolling past St. John's 81-58. Bethel stole the ball from St. John's 10 times and Isaiah Carver-Bagley scored 16 of his 22 points in the first half as the Royals (3-3, 3-1 MIAC) build up a 39-25 halftime lead. And it didn't get any better for the Johnnies (3-2, 2-2) after halftime as Bethel led by as many as 26. The Royals shot a season-best 54.4 percent from the floor and held SJU to just 3-for-17 shooting from beyond the arc at home. Ryan Thissen led SJU with 15.

Trine completed its perfect regular season with an 82-53 win over Albion on what would have been Senior Day, if the Thunder had any seniors. Sophomore Brent Cox scored 19 points and junior Nick Bowman added 15 for for the Thunder (14-0, 5-0 MIAA) who shot 53 percent.

Riley Miller hit his first six 3-point attempts of the afternoon and scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the first half as No. 7 St. Thomas went on to win at Augsburg, 81-70. Will Engels, making his first career start, went 6-for-6 for the Tommies (4-0, 3-0 MIAC) and the Tommies shot 15-for-32 from beyond the arc. St. Thomas built its cushion at large as 23 points in the second half. The Auggies (2-3, 1-3) whittled the deficit to 74-64 in the final 3:00 but was unable to get closer. Matt Carik and Will Schmidt each scored 14 points for Augsburg.

Loras and Simpson battled to a draw over 50 minutes and nearly needed five more, but Andrew Curran's jump shot at the buzzer gave the Storm a 102-100 double-overtime win over the Duhawks. At the end of regulation, Loras had a chance to extend a one-point lead to three but Rowen McGowan split two free throws. Simpson grabbed the rebound off the miss and found Curran who tied the game with two seconds left. McGowan more than atoned for his earlier miss by tying the game twice late in the second overtime, first with a three-point play and then with a three-point shot. Curran finished with 43 points on 14 for 25 shooting and made 11 of his 12 free throw attempts for Simpson (3-5, 3-3 A-R-C). Rowen McGowan scored 30 in 40 minutes for Loras (6-4, 3-3 A-R-C).

Sophomore Peyton Olsen scored 50 for NVU-Lyndon but it wasn't nearly enough, as New England College still swatted the Hornets, 121-93. Olsen shot 19-for-27 from the floor and 12-for16 from the free throw line in what is currently the highest single-game scoring output for Division III basketball this season.

A handful of New England teams took the floor for the first time. Madison Maloney notched a double-double (19 points, 11 rebounds) and Coast Guard mashed Mitchell, 91-68, in the first game for both teams. Connecticut College became the first NESCAC basketball team to play this season, with a 77-61 loss to Marchant Marine. The women's team lost 77-46 at Babson.

Saturday's women's recap

It was Senior Day at Hope, and what do you do for Senior Day when you have nine seniors? You start them all!

Yes, Hope put all nine seniors on the floor to start Saturday afternoon's home game against Kalamazoo. The officials took a dim view of this and assessed Hope with a technical foul to start the game, but it hardly mattered as the Flying Dutch rolled to a 101-37 win. Nobody played more than 14 minutes for Hope, and 18 players got in the game, with 17 of them scoring. The one player who didn't score, Courteney Barnes, pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds to make up for it.

LeTourneau hung with No. 2 East Texas Baptist until the fourth quarter before the Tigers pulled away for their 21st consecutive victory and the ASC East Divition title. Ty Moon pulled LETU within a point with a three-pointer 50 seconds in the final period and East Texas Baptist immediately responded with a Kaia Williams three-pointer. That keyed a 16-1 run leading to the Tigers' 84-74 win. 

No. 6 Whitman earned a weekend split with rival Whitworth when Sydney Abbott hit the game-winning shot with four seconds left, giving the Blues a 60-58 win. Whitmans (6-2, 6-2 NWC) led 58-56 in the final minute until Macey Morales pulled Whitworth even with a basket. The Blues called timeout and got the ball to Abbott for the winning play. The Pirates (3-4, 3-4 NWC) had a chance to win the game, but Morales' three was off the mark. The teams will play twice more at Whitworth next weekend to close the season.

No. 7 Millsaps had a blast playing against Birmingham-Southern's Grinnell-style defense, as the Majors camped out down low for 56 rebounds and 68 points in the paint in their 104-75 win. Taelor Manning tallied 23 points including 13 at the free throw line for Millsaps (9-1, 8-1 SAA).

North Central (Ill.) scored upset wins over Millikin and Illinois Wesleyan, but came up empty against No. 13 Wheaton (Ill.). Annie Tate rolled up 33 points and 14 rebounds, most of them coming in the second half, and the Thunder topped the Cardinals, 73-58. Wheaton will be the top seed in next week's CCIW tournament and awaits the winner of the North Central-Carthage play-in game.

Not all ranked teams got through the day unscathed.

Piedmont knocked No. 10 Maryville off the list of unbeaten teams with a 68-60 win in Tennessee. Hope Franklin and Nakiyah Washington combined for 29 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter, for the Lions (13-3, 11-0 USA South). The teams will close the regular season against each other tomorrow. Otterbein celebrated its Senior Night by beating No. 12 John Carroll, 70-62. The Cardinals converted 24 Blue Streaks' turnovers into 30 points. John Carroll and Otterbein will be the top two seeds in next week's OAC tournament.

Proving that tomorrow is another day, Edgewood rebounded from Friday night's 63-49 loss to Wisconsin Lutheran by trouncing the Warriors, 75-49. The Eagles (10-4, 9-1 NACC) outrebounded Wisconsin Lutheran by 15 and had a 29-7 bench scoring advantage, including a team-high 14 points from Paige Banks. Nichols enjoyed an even bigger swing in fortune. The Bison flipped its 55-point loss to Suffolk on Friday night (101-46) to a 69-56 win less than 24 hours later. First year guard Abrianna Vazquez scored 27 points for Nichols.