NORTHFIELD, Vt. - The Norwich University men's basketball team went blow-for-blow with the reigning Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) champions on Saturday afternoon, falling just short in an 89-84 overtime heartbreaker to Saint Joseph's College of Maine inside Andrews Hall.

Three Cadets eclipsed the 20-point mark in the high-powered battle, led by a career-best 31 points from senior Michel Ndayishimiye (Colchester, Vt.), who drained seven three-pointers and sparked multiple late rallies.  Senior Joe Joe DuBrul (Shelburne, Vt.) added 21 points on nine made shots, while freshman Jordan Ricketts (Stratford, Conn.) tallied 20 points, including three triples.  Riley Severy (Barre, Vt.) contributed a critical spark off the bench with eight points and a team-high 13 rebounds.

Ricketts opened the scoring for Norwich with a jumper in the paint, but the Monks surged ahead on an 8-0 run to take early control.  The Cadets battled back, narrowing the gap to one at 21-20 after a flurry of DuBrul finishes.  Mike Johnson-Correia (Mattapan, Mass.) briefly put Norwich in front midway through the stanza with a bucket off a Daniel Bogre (Colchester, Vt.) steal, before Ndayishimiye buried back-to-back threes to stretch the lead to four.

Saint Joseph's responded with a late burst to carry a narrow advantage into halftime, and continued the momentum out of the break with a 6-0 spurt to push the margin to eight.  The Monks slowly built what appeared to be a commanding 11-point cushion, 75-64, with just over four minutes to go.  But Norwich stormed back, fueled by a pair of deep Ndayishimiye triples and a DuBrul layup to cut the deficit to three.

With under two minutes left, the Monks again extended the lead to eight, but Norwich refused to fade.  Ndayishimiye drilled another triple to trim the gap to four, and Severy converted on a layup with 30 seconds left after a DuBrul feed.  A missed front end of a one-and-one by Saint Joseph's gave Norwich one final chance, and Ndayishimiye delivered, slicing through the lane for a buzzer-beating layup to force overtime at 84-84.

The Cadets struck first in the extra session behind another Ndayishimiye drive, but Saint Joseph's clamped down from there, holding Norwich scoreless over the final four minutes while using a 7-0 run to escape with the win.

Norwich finished with a 13-7 edge in fast break points and blistered the nets from distance, shooting 13-26 (50.0%) from beyond the arc while hitting 44.2% overall from the field.

The Cadets will now hit the road for back-to-back GNAC matchups, beginning with a 7:00 p.m. contest at Rivier University on Tuesday, Jan. 20. Norwich will then visit Albertus Magnus College on Saturday, Jan. 24.