DECORAH, Iowa - The University of Dubuque men's basketball team survived an upset bid from the Luther College Norse on Wednesday night 60-59 behind 29 points from Jaylin McCants. 

The Norse got out to a quick 7-0 lead tonight and the Spartans were held scoreless for almost the first four minutes of the game. After a basket by McCants to tie the game at 12-12, Jalen Scott would get a fast break dunk on the following possession to give the Spartans their first lead of the game. The next time down the court for the Spartans, Joey Coppola IV would hit a three-pointer from the left wing to cap off a 7-0 run to force the Norse to take a timeout. The Spartans would lead by two at the half.

The leads for either team never got bigger than five points in the second half in a back and forth battle. The Norse made a run to retake the lead 39-38 with 12:49 left in the game, for their first lead since early in the first half. After being tied at 41-41 the Norse would score five straight to have their biggest lead of the night. That would not last long as Grady Thompson went on his own 8-0 run to give the Spartans a 49-46 lead with 6:18 left. The Norse answered on their end to tie the game yet again, but Thompson struck again with another three-pointer to retake the lead. 

The Spartans would never relinquish the lead again in the final five minutes, but the final few seconds had Spartan nation on their heals, missing their final four free throw attempts to put the game away. The Norse turned the ball over on their final possession with two seconds remaining to give the Spartans the narrow one point win. 

McCants had a game-high 29 points on 12-19 shooting while also grabbing six rebounds. Thompson finished in double figures with 12 points thanks to his 11 straight points for the Spartans in the second half. 

Hear from Robbie Sieverding
"We got off to rough start and give Luther credit they were ready to go from the tip. We struggled shooting from both the three point line and the free throw line. Jaylin made some big shots for us and Grady made a couple big threes late in the game. Road wins can often be hard and tonight we were able to find a way."

The Spartans move to 15-5 overall and 9-2 in the A-R-C. The Spartans remain No 2 in the conference standings with five regular season games remaining. 

Up Next
The Spartans will be back at home on Saturday when they face Buena Vista University at 4:00 p.m. from the Stoltz Sports Center.