Minnesota-Morris withstood a body blow at the beginning to deliver the knock out punch at the finish.
The Cougars overcame a sluggish start and scored the last four points in the final minute to turn back Presentation College 83-79 in non-conference men's college basketball at the Strode Center Wednesday night.
"It can be a possession here or there where you don't do things the right away and it turns into a four-point game. I think they just executed better down the stretch," said PC coach Jeremy Reigle. "They've been in some close games. This is really the first one we've actually been in where it's been close. It's disheartening and it's disappointing that we couldn't do it at home, but I think we're going to learn from it and be better in the future."
With the score tied at 79-79, Brendon Foss put his signature on the Cougars' victory.
First, the junior collected a rebound off a missed shot and was fouled.
"Part of my game is just to be hustling around," Foss said. "It's not always pretty, but I try to get the job done."
He went to the free-throw stripe and rattled both free throws into the hoop with 46.4 seconds left.
Foss then came up with a huge steal on PC's possession and was fouled again.
"He was driving in and I was going to help," Foss explained of the defensive gem. "Then I saw him going to kick it over to the other guy, so I just tried to get a hand up and my long arm snagged it."
Once again, Foss rattled home a foul shot with 28.8 seconds left to give the visitors an 82-79 edge.
The Saints then missed a three-point attempt, had to foul and Morris made another free throw to make it a two-possession game.
"I wanted to get Foss off the floor for just a breather or two, but we just couldn't afford to do it," said Morris coach Paul Grove. "He was making, it seemed like, every play on defense. He'd either knock it out of bounds, steal it; then if it was a rebound, you just knew it was his. He played an incredible game."
Foss finished with 20 points and eight rebounds to lead the victory.
For a while, it appeared Morris would not even be in the market for a hero down the stretch.
PC jumped all over the Cougars and led 11-0 less than four minutes into the game.
That's when Grove turned to his bench. The reserves responded with 14 points to get the visitors back in the game.
"We have to give those five guys that came off the bench a ton of credit," Grove said.
After watching Presentation center Darrell Farr score eight points to spark the Saints early-game surge, Morris switched to a zone defense that also worked wonders.
"I really hated to go to that," Grove said. "It's kind of a bailout, but it worked."
Soon, the Cougars were ahead and it stayed that way until midway through the second half.
Trailing 55-45 with 14:32 remaining, the Saints caught fire behind the outside shooting of reserve Chaz Haymond. The junior scored 19 second-half points as PC actually led by three points or two separate occasions.
"I think Chaz Haymond did a fantastic job off the bench," Reigle said, "really shot the ball well, kept us in the game, got us back in it."
Anthony Hendricks also played a key role in PC's rally, scoring 10 points in the second half.
"I thought Anthony Hendricks was just phenomenal tonight," Reigle said. "We just have to get a little better all the way around and we'll be OK."
Haymond finished with 20 points, Quincy Davis had 15, and Farr and Hendricks added 14 apiece for the Saints.
PC, 2-2 on the season, heads to Nebraska this weekend where it takes on Nebraska Christian at 7 p.m. Friday in Omaha and then Union College at 8 p.m. Saturday in Lincoln.
"I think this is a game that's really going to help us out in the future," Reigle said following the hard-fought setback to Morris. "I thought we did a nice job of coming back in the second half."
MINNESOTA-MORRIS (2-3): Evan Rellar 6-11 0-1 13, Brendon Foss 7-10 4-6 20, RJ Dean 3-8 0-2 6, Logan Orazem 2-2 2-2 7, Steve Birman 3-9 0-0 7, Jeremy Burns 2-4 0-1 5, Tyler Pendleton 3-4 0-0 8, Ben Hoidal 3-3 6-9 13, Nick Jansen 2-3 0-0 4, Jordan Geiske 0-0 0-0 0, Joe Roggenbuck 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-54 13-21 83.
PRESENTATION (2-2): Vladimir Charlitte 2-4 1-2 5, Darrell Farr 7-13 0-0 14, Anthony Hendricks 4-11 6-10 14, Damian Salais 0-4 0-0 0, Quincy Davis 6-13 1-1 15, Chaz Haymond 7-11 4-5 20, Terry Strong 4-9 0-0 9, Gavin Voss 0-0 0-0 0, Travis Cleveland 1-1 0-0 2, Brendon Goetzinger 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-67 12-18 79.
Halftime score - Morris 38-32. 3-point field goals - Morris 8-14 (Foss 2-3, Dean 0-2, Orazem 1-1, Birman 1-2, Burns 1-2, Pendleton 2-3, Hoidal 1-1, Jansen 0-1); Presentation 5-21 (Farr 0-2, Hendricks 0-1, Salais 0-3, Davis 2-5, Haymond 2-4, Strong 1-5, Goetzinger 0-1). Fouled out - Farr. Total fouls - Morris 14; Presentation 22. Rebounds - Morris 40 (Rellar 8, Foss 8); Presentation 28 (Charlitte 8). Turnovers - Morris 22; Presentation 16. Assists - Morris 19 (Dean 5); Presentation 17 (Hendricks 6). Blocked Shots - Morris 0; Presentation 2. Steals - Morris 5; Presentation 11 (Hendricks 6).