MANKATO, Minn. -- The UW-Superior men's basketball team stormed all the way back from a 17-point deficit with less than five minutes remaining to knot the game with 17.7 seconds on the clock before Bethany Lutheran earned an 85-82 victory in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference opener for both teams at North Gymnasium Friday.
 
UWS, playing for the first time since Nov. 26 at St. Norbert, fell behind, 75-58, with 4:52 left, but used sweltering defense and strong shooting to get back into the game. The Yellowjackets swiped three steals and knocked down 10 of their final 14 shots from the floor, pulling even, 82-82, on a layup by senior Josef Fahrenholtz (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield). 
 
Bethany Lutheran's Jax Madson drew a blocking foul from J'Vaun Walker (Rosharon, Texas/Manvel) on the next possession and hit the second of two free throws to give the lead back to the Vikings. Walker, though, slipped receiving the in-bounds pass and Justin Scrupp recovered the ball to feed Madson for a dunk and three-point lead. Superior had one final shot, but Walker's 3-pointer at the buzzer was off the mark and BLC escaped with victory.
 
UWS (2-4, 0-1 UMAC) never led in the contest despite getting a career-high 24 points from sophomore Reid Johnson (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) and 21 points and 12 rebounds from Fahrenholz. Johnson shot 5-for-9 from 3-point range, while Fahrenholz picked up his second double-double of the season.
 
The Vikings, who remained unbeaten at 8-0 overall with the win, led, 44-36, at halftime. The Yellowjackets crept to within 55-52 on a Levy Miguel (Luanda, Angola/Canarias Basketball Academy) layup, assisted by Walker, with 11:47 left prior to Bethany building what looked to be an insurmountable lead over the next seven minutes. UWS, however, began chipping away, following a timeout, with a trey from junior Joey Barker (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) and Fahrenholz basket, cutting it to a 75-63 deficit.
 
Barker stripped Madson and found Johnson for a layup in transition to get the lead under double digits at 80-72 with 2:04 to play, and again caused a turnover on the next trip and got it to Johnson for a triple, forcing a BLC timeout. The 'Jackets weren't done as Johnson hit another 3-pointer with 1:11 on the clock to make it an 80-78 game. After Drew Sagedahl responded with a bucket, Johnson hit a layup and stole the ball from former UWS player Xavier Patterson (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior). Fahrenholz followed his own miss and put it back up and in to tie the game at 82-all, setting the stage for the wild finish.
 
Miguel had 10 points in 18 minutes off the bench, his first double-figure scoring effort at UWS. Walker had eight assists and seven boards to go with three points. The Yellowjackets outrebounded Bethany, 42-40.
 
Sagedahl finished a game-high 25 points and Hunter Nielson had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Vikings.
 
UWS is back in action at Martin Luther Saturday at 3 p.m.