After helping the Dakota Wizards escape with a thrilling 115-113 comeback victory over the Sioux Falls Skyforce in Saturday's D-League Eastern Division final, Renaldo Major sprinted toward the locker room, shouting with glee.

"Not in the dungeon! We've done come too far!"

The Skyforce probably felt that characterization of the Civic Center was accurate. It was certainly slow torture for Sioux Falls to watch the lead it held virtually all night slip away as the Wizards went to the line 33 times in the second half.

Major - who scored 29 points by attacking the basket relentlessly - led the parade. The all-star forward hit 17 of 18 free throws, including 14 of 15 in the final two periods.

"We needed every one of them, too," Wizards coach Dave Joerger said.

Major said the Wizards, who trailed by 12 points in the third quarter and didn't take the lead for good until 32.8 seconds remained, were inspired by the raucous crowd of 3,826.

"Once we got the lead, we felt like we could maintain it,"he said. "The crowd gave us so much energy and we fed off that. We played our hearts out and we helped each other. Man, it was a big win."

Big enough to put the Wizards - in their first season in the D-League - into the championship game. They will play host to the Colorado 14ers at 6 p.m. on April 29 as they shoot for the fourth title in franchise history.

Quemont Greer got Dakota off to a fast start, scoring 10 points in the first 5:30 as the Wizards raced to an 18-12 lead.

But Frank Williams - who was limited to just two points in the Skyforce's first-round playoff game due to an ankle sprain - was healthy and back in top form.

Williams, who set a D-League regular-season record with 122 3-pointers - went 7-for-12 from behind the arc and finished with 30 points.

"He's done that for us all year long, had big games," Sioux Falls coach MoMcHone said.

Williams knocked down three straight 3-pointers in the waning stages of the first quarter, spurring an 11-0 See Wizards, Page 4D

run and giving Sioux Falls a lead it wouldn't relinquish until deep in the fourth quarter.

Greer, who scored 22 of his 26 in the first half, kept the Wizards close. But Williams heated up again at the end of the second quarter. He closed the half with an old-fashioned three-point play followed by his fifth trey of the night, and Sioux Falls led 63-53 at intermission.

"They had at least four times when they could have knocked us out, and we had one chance to win the game," Joerger said.

That came late in the fourth quarter, when the Wizards ratcheted up the defensive intensity. The Skyforce were up 105-101 with 4:58 to play, but wouldn't score for the next 3:22. It certainly didn't help the Skyforce when Williams and Eddy Fobbs fouled out.

"What happened was we were in such deep foul trouble that we had lineups in there that we wouldn't normally have," McHone said.

Dakota only scored six points in that stretch, but it was enough to inch in front. Two free throws from Major - who else - made it 106-105 with 2:57 to go.

The game was deadlocked at 107 when Dakota's Chris McCray hit a 3-pointer just as the shot clock expired with 1:01 to play. Stephen Graham answered with a 3 of his. That tied the game at 110 with 45.1 seconds left.

But Major got to the line and hit a pair of free throws. Then McCray stripped Grahsm, resulting in Dontell Jefferson making one of two freebies to increase the lead to 113-110.

With 20 seconds left, Sioux Falls had plenty of time, but Greer blocked a shot by Graham, and Jefferson put the exclamation point on the win with a dunk.

A final 3-pointer by Sioux Falls was too little, too late.

Dakota got a great effort from its rookie guards in crunch time. McCray scored 13 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, while Jefferson had four points and three assists.

"Those two guys made a lot of smart plays in the last eight minutes of the game, and you're talking about two rookies," Joerger said.

The Wizards and Skyforce had split six games during the regular season, with a cumulative point differential of just three in Dakota's favor.

Game 7 in The Battle of the Dakotas, as Wizards point guard Corey Williams dubbed it, lived up to the billing.

"You just keep fighting," Major said. "You keep climbing and eventually we got over that hump.

"… We just left it all out on the court, and it showed."

Sioux Falls 29 63 87 113

Wizards 22 53 83 115

SF (113): Damone Brown 7-12 5-5 21, Antonio Meeking 10-19 1-2 21, Eddy Fobbs 1-3 0-0 2, Stephen Graham 5-11 4-4 15, Frank Williams 10-17 3-4 30, Robert Hite 4-11 0-0 10, Antywane Robinson 2-5 0-0 5, Will Blalock 3-9 3-4 9. Totals 42-87 16-20 113.

WIZARDS (115): Quemont Greer 11-21 3-4 26, Renaldo Major 6-16 17-18 29, Kevin Lyde 3-7 2-2 8, Corey Williams 6-9 4-6 16, Maurice Baker 1-4 0-0 2, Darius Rice 3-6 2-2 9, Rod Benson 0-2 0-0 0, Chris McCray 5-12 6-7 17, Jerome Beasley 0-1 0-0 0, Dontell Jefferson 3-8 2-4 8. Totals 38-86 36-43 115.

3-pointers: SF 13-30 (F. Williams 7-12, Brown 2-3, Hite 2-7, Graham 1-2, Robinson 1-3, Blalock 0-1, Meeking 0-2), W 3-8 (Greer 1-1, Rice 1-3, McCray 1-3, Baker 0-1). Rebounds: SF 40 (Fobbs 9), W 49 (Greer 10). Assists: SF 17 (Blalock 6), W 21 (C. Williams 6). Fouls: SF 32, W 20. Fouled out: F. Williams, Fobbs. Technical fouls: W 1 - defensive 3 seconds. Steals: SF 7 (Meeking 3, F. Williams 3), W 6 (Williams 2). Turnovers: SF 18, W 15. Blocks: SF 7 (Robinson 4), W 6 (Major 2).

A: 3,826.