MAYVILLE, ND – The Mayville State University Comet men's basketball team was looking to stay perfect at home Saturday afternoon, as the Mount Marty Lancers, members of the Great Plains Athletic Conference, came to the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse for a Saturday afternoon non-conference matchup. The Lancers proved their toughness, forcing the Comets to overtime and defeating them 85-77.
 
"We dug ourselves in a hole in the second half," Comets head coach Darren Tighe said. "But I really liked how we fought back and gave ourselves a chance to win in overtime."
 
Mount Marty jumped out to a four-point lead early on a three by Colby Johnson with 16:10 to go in the first half. But the Comets responded 15 seconds later with a three of their own, by Malachi Wharry, pulling Mayville State to within one point, 8-7. Two minutes later, the Comets took the lead back, on Simon Ramirez's three-point bucket on a defensive rebound by Wharry, created on a missed two-point shot by Saba Gvedashvili.
 
Mount Marty's Elijah Pappas pulled the Lancers out to a 16-10 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the half, during a three-plus minute time period, in which the Comets were held scoreless. But, Ramirez snapped the scoreless streak with 10:03 to go with another three-pointer.
 
The late stages of the first half saw Mayville State build a five-point lead on Wharry's three with 2:39 left in the half, only to lose the lead with 11 seconds to go in the half, on Jordan Johnson's three, giving Mount Marty a 33-32 halftime lead, one that stood even with Iker Cruz's attempted buzzer beater from just inside the 10-foot area.
 
The second half started with Mount Marty surging out of the locker room. Four quick points in the first minute put the Lancers ahead 37-32, before Mayville State caught their footing. When the Comets did, they quickly pulled themselves back into the drivers seat, going on a fast 6-0 run in 45 seconds, led by back-to-back buckets by Rene Melendez. Besides a bucket by Mount Marty's Chris King, Melendez had every Comet point in the first eight minutes of the second half, until Thomas Gieske hit a bucket with 14:00 left. But, by that time, Mount Marty had built a significant nine-point lead, 54-43.
 
A double-digit lead stayed for Mount Marty until under eight minutes left, when Cruz nailed another three, pulling the Comets to within nine points.
 
It looked as if Mount Marty was going to knock Mayville State off in regulation, until under a minute left. Latrelle Franklin drove to the bucket, scored and was fouled, making it 70-69. His subsequent free throw sank, tying the game at 70-70, setting up a dramatic finish to regulation.
 
With 28 seconds left, and the momentum equal, Mount Marty called a timeout and set up what could have been a winning play. With a defensive rebound, Chris King took the ball down the court, missing the game winning shot and sending the game to overtime.
 
Mount Marty led from start-to-finish in the overtime period, paced by King's seven points.
 
Melendez led the Comets with 19 points. Two other Comets were in double figures—Franklin and Ramirez each had 14.
 
Mayville State, now 4-2, will travel to Bemidji, Minn., next weekend for the Bemidji State tournament. They'll take on the Beavers on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
 
"We do some things really good," Tighe said. "But we also have things that need to be better now as we head into our exhibition portion of our schedule."