Fighting uphill most of the night against an opponent that seemed to have the answers at every turn, the North Central College men's basketball team found a path forward at just the right time and delivered a comeback for the ages at Gregory Arena Saturday. The Cardinals wrestled an 84-82 overtime victory away from the defending national champion University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the second round of the NCAA Division III Championship.
 
The Titans shot 54.5 percent (18 of 33) from the floor in the first period and led by as many as 15 points before halftime, and showed no signs of slowing down after play resumed. Owning a 58-45 lead and having sent senior forwards Connor Raridon and Matt Cappelletti, North Central's leading scorers all season long, to the bench with foul trouble, the stage hardly seemed set for a rally.
 
Without the senior leaders at their disposal, the Cardinals (23-5) turned to their junior class to launch their comeback effort. Will Clausel provided a spark with two straight layups, and a pair of three-pointers by Michael Pollack bookended a layin by Blaise Meredith as North Central outscored the Titans, 12-2, in a three-minute stretch to cut the lead to 60-57 with 8:05 to play.
 
Oshkosh (20-9) worked the ball down low to senior center Jack Flynn on three straight possessions to keep the Cardinals at bay, though North Central followed by turning up the defensive pressure to hold the visitors scoreless for nearly four minutes. Pollack dialed up another three-pointer before Meredith knocked down a jump shot to tie the score at 67-67 with 2:58 on the clock. A minute later, Meredith created some space for himself and bottomed out a step-back three-pointer to give the Cardinals a 70-67 advantage, their first since midway through the first half.
 
"We learned to play without them, and that was a nice thing to see," said North Central head coach Todd Raridon. "The level of intensity went up, we shared the basketball and executed defensively to get stops. We did what we needed to do, and that's a credit to the whole team."
 
Following a timeout, the Titans got a driving layup from freshman guard Will Mahoney to stop the bleeding. On the next trip down the floor, Mahoney drove the lane again. His shot was off the mark, but Flynn came up with a tip-in to nudge Oshkosh back in front, 71-70. Oshkosh senior forward Adam Fravert blocked Meredith's shot attempt on the other end and collected the rebound, but Meredith came up with a steal which enabled Cappelletti to sink a three-pointer with 15 seconds on the clock. Once again, however, Flynn came through with a second-chance bucket to tie the score at 73-73 and force overtime.
 
With the score tied at 77-77 midway through the extra session, Meredith found Clausel for a layup before working the ball to Pollack for his fifth three-pointer of the night to give North Central its largest lead of the game at 82-77. The Titans' Eddie Muench, however, countered with his fifth triple in five attempts and Mahoney tied the game once again with a pair of free throws.
 
After a timeout, the Cardinals set up for the final possession of the evening. Coming off a screen which might ordinarily have seen the sharpshooter flare out to the three-point line, Pollack instead dove straight to the basket, and Clausel threaded a bounce pass through the Oshkosh defense for the game-winning layup with 3.2 seconds to play.
 
Meredith finished with a career-high 23 points and also led the Cardinals with six assists. Pollack put up 17 points, all of which came after halftime, on 6 of 8 shooting (5 of 6 from three-point range) and Clausel and Cappelletti each scored 11 points. North Central knocked down 12 of 24 threes as a team, making 7 of 12 in the second half and overtime.
 
Flynn led the Titans with 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Muench and Levi Borchert each scored 15.
 
The Cardinals advance to the round of 16 for the third time and the first since 2013. North Central will face 16th-ranked Washington University in St. Louis (22-5), a 79-58 winner over seventh-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan University in its second-round matchup.