It is not too often that the final eight min­utes of one game defines an entire season.

For the Ferris State men’s bas­ket­ball team, that’s exactly what the last 8:03 of the Bulldogs’ vic­tory over the nation­ally No. 3-ranked Findlay Oilers did.

With a 64–60 lead in the sec­ond half, the Bulldogs made an 11–0 run to break the game open and secure an 84–66 upset win over the GLIAC South-leading Oilers.

Ferris trailed Findlay 25–11 mid­way through the first half, but outscored the Oilers 73–41 over the final 29 min­utes of the contest.

Ferris claimed the GLIAC North title for the first time since the 2004-05 sea­son with the vic­tory. The Bulldogs also secured a home game in the GLIAC tour­na­ment quarterfinals.

Ferris is on a 12-game win­ning streak and remained unde­feated at home with a per­fect 12–0 record at Wink Arena. The Bulldogs are 20–5 over­all and 16–2 in con­fer­ence play this season.

The Bulldogs knocked off Wayne State, ranked sixth in the Midwest Region, 78–66 on Thursday.

The top eight teams in the regional rank­ings at the end of the sea­son receive bids to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Prior to this week’s games, Ferris was ranked ninth in the Midwest Region.

With vic­to­ries over Findlay, ranked third in the region, and Wayne State, it is likely the Bulldogs will move into the top eight when the new rank­ings are released on Wednesday.

Ferris can claim the No. 1 seed in the con­fer­ence tour­na­ment and the out­right GLIAC regular-season title with a win over Grand Valley State on Feb. 26. If the Bulldogs lose to the Lakers, they can still claim the No. 1 seed if Hillsdale loses one of its final two games.