Doubt started to creep into Northern State senior DJ Pollard's mind as the Wolves trailed Queens (N.C.) by five points with less than 30 seconds to play in overtime Thursday night.
"I thought it was pretty close to being over," Pollard said Friday.
That didn't mean Pollard was ready for his college career to end. Pollard quickly erased that deficit, scoring five points in six seconds to force a second overtime. That scoring burst helped the Wolves rally for a dramatic 105-99 double-overtime victory in the NCAA Division II men's basketball semifinals at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
"He's been so committed over the years so it's fun to see him on that kind of stage to step up and make those kind of plays," Northern State head coach Paul Sather said of Pollard, a 6-foot-4 senior from St. Louis Park, Minn.
The No. 3-seeded Wolves will play for the Division II national championship against top-seeded Ferris State (Mich.) at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Pentagon.
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Northern State, located in Aberdeen, S.D., will be playing in its first Division II men's title game. The Wolves (36-3) were the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference overall regular-season and league tournament champions. They are in the NSIC North Division along with Minnesota State Moorhead, which made the Elite Eight in 2015.
Northern State has a 15-game winning streak entering Saturday's national championship game.
"We have such a rich tradition of excellent basketball," Pollard said. "To get there at the D-II level, I think that speaks volumes to the culture that we've created."
Queens looked in position to end Northern State's storybook season in Thursday's semifinals. The Royals held a 89-84 lead when Pollard was fouled on a 3-pointer with 20 seconds remaining in overtime. Pollard sank the first two foul shots before missing the third. Wolves sophomore Gabe King, however, grabbed the offensive rebound and passed the ball back out to the perimeter. A couple quick passes later, Pollard sank a 3-pointer from the wing that tied the game at 89-89 with 14 seconds to play.
"It's the most excitement that you can have," Pollard said. "In the moment, it was pretty surreal."
Pollard said King's rebound saved the season.
"Sometimes you just get breaks and that rebound Gabe King got was an incredible rebound," Sather added.
On the ensuing Queens possession, Pollard blocked Ike Agusi's driving short jumper in the closing seconds to send it to a second overtime. Agusi finished with a game-high 27 points.
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The Wolves scored the first nine points in the second overtime to build the cushion it needed to secure the victory.
"It was probably the craziest game I've ever been a part of to be honest," said Pollard, who finished with 17 points, including 12 in the two overtimes.
The Wolves are the fourth Central Region team to advance to the D-II national championship game in the past five seasons. A Central Region team has won three of the previous four national championships: Central Missouri (2014), Augustana (2016) and Northwest Missouri State (2017).
"This is a really special group of guys. We have to win one more game," Pollard said. "No matter what happens, this year has been unreal. It's something that you shouldn't take for granted."
