ASHLAND, Wis. – The University of Minnesota Morris men's basketball team survived some late turnovers in regulation and moved to 5-4 (1-0 UMAC) on the season with a 96-88 overtime win at Northland College on Friday night.

Minnesota Morris led by as many as six and Northland by as many as five in the first half, but the game was played back and forth as the Cougars went to the break holding a 38-36 edge.

An 11-2 Minnesota Morris run midway through the second half helped the Cougars grow their lead to 59-49 and eventually UMN Morris would go on top, 70-56, with five minutes to go. Things looked to be heavily in favor of the Cougars until Northland cranked up the defensive pressure and began to forced turnovers down the stretch. Langston Flowers knocked down a three with less than 30 seconds to go, tying things up at 77-77 and neither team would score from there, forcing an extra five minutes.

Flowers gave the LumberJacks a brief lead in the first 30 seconds of the extra session, but Pal Dak came back with a quick layup and had six of the first eight Cougar points of overtime to stake the team to an 85-80 lead. In the final two minutes, Gus Gunderson took over at the foul line, knocking down eight straight to secure the win and also setting a single-game school record by making 18 free throws on the night.

Gunderson ended with a game-high 30 points, going 6-of-10 from the field and 18-of-19 from the stripe. Dak added 23 points and Kenny Placide notched 15 points. Tarik Iyob hauled in a game-high nine rebounds off the bench.

Minnesota Morris wraps up the opening weekend of UMAC play at the University of Wisconsin-Superior on Saturday at 4:45 p.m.