Winona Lakes, Indiana –– The #4 seeded Northwestern men's basketball team continued its trend of late-game heroics on Friday night in the NCCAA Semifinals against the #1 seeded Grace College. Northwestern will play for the title on Saturday at 4:00 against Ottawa University Arizona.

Henry Fahnbulleh (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) got the game started with a triple, and the two teams exchanged blows throughout the half. The Lancers held onto a slim lead until Kyle Kaemingk (Woodbury, Minn./New Life Academy) made a layup at the 12-minute mark to make it 18-17 Northwestern, but Grace College immediately took back the lead. 

The Lancers kept the two to three-point lead until Caleb Waldeck (Newhall, Calif./Hart High) hit a deep bank three after an Owen Boerema (Litchfield, Minn./Litchfield) offensive rebound kept the possession alive to make it 30-29 UNW with four minutes to play. The Eagles quickly extended the lead to four points which amounted to its largest lead of the day after the sixth tie of the first half. Grace followed with a three and three twos to take a 39-34 lead into halftime. Northwestern only shot 37% from the field in the half, including 6-16 from behind the arc. Nine points off of turnovers helped to keep Northwestern in the low-scoring game.

The Lancers came out firing in the second half to take an eight-point lead, 46-38, only two minutes into the frame. That was the largest the lead would ever get as Noah Alm (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake) chipped into the lead with one of his classic pull-up twos. Waldeck added another deep three to cut it down to five with seventeen minutes to play. The Lancer lead bounced around between five and seven until Waldeck tied it with his second deep bank three.

A Henry Fahnbulleh (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) fastbreak layup followed, which gave the Eagles its first lead of the second half with thirteen minutes to go. The two teams continued to battle back and forth as the Lancers led by one to four points for the next four minutes of play. Alm drained a transition three to give Northwestern a two-point lead with nine minutes to go. The Lancers got the lead back to six with a little less than five minutes to go, but they could not put the Eagles away. Waldeck made another clutch bucket, this time a two before Noah Alm (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake) hit another three with two-and-a-half to play to make it 75-74 Grace. 

Henry Fahnbulleh (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) gave the Eagles its first lead since the eight-minute mark with a three to give Northwestern the 77-76 lead with one minute remaining. On the ensuing possession, Kaemingk played excellent defense to get the critical defensive rebound to give the Eagles a chance to extend their lead. The Eagles were unable to capitalize, but Fahnbulleh got a huge defensive rebound with only three seconds to play after a missed three by the Lancers. After the stop, Noah Alm (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake) made both ends of the one-and-one, just the third and fourth free throws of the evening for the Eagles, to secure the 79-76 win.

Northwestern shot much better in the second half as they went 18-30 for 60% to finish the game at 47.7%. They also shot 7-15 from behind the arc in the second half, spurring the comeback. Four Eagles finished in double figures as Fahnbulleh led the way with 21 points, Alm added 20, Waldeck 14, and Kaemingk 13.

The Eagles' late-game heroics continued to keep their magical run alive in the NCCAA tournament. In the three games, Northwestern has won by a combined total of six points. The Eagles hope to dance all the way to the NCCAA championship in its first appearance in the tournament since they won the title back in 2010. 

The championship game is on Saturday at 4:00 pm against Ottawa University Arizona. The Spirit dominated Alice Lloyd 86-66 in the other semifinal to reach the championship.

For all things UNW men's basketball, check out www.unweagles.com or follow them on Instagram and Twitter @unwmbb.