Karl-Anthony Towns scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half and the Minnesota Timberwolves held off the Dallas Mavericks 105-100 on Tuesday night to avoid a sweep in the Western Conference finals.

Anthony Edwards had 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists as the Wolves stayed alive in their first trip to the conference finals in 20 years.

Towns, who was shooting 28% from the field in the series coming in, was 9 of 13 from the field, including four of five from deep.

“He got himself going by going to the hoop,” coach Chris Finch said. “Played quick off the catch. Stayed confident. He didn’t really look much for his three until the second half. He just had his feet set. He was ready. And they were huge.”

Now Minnesota head home for Game 5 on Thursday night to see if it can make the series even more interesting against Dallas.

Luka Doncic had 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in his sixth triple-double of these playoffs, but he and co-star Kyrie Irving were just 13 of 39 from the field. Irving, who was 14-0 in his career in closeout games coming in, finished with 16 points.

“That game’s on me. Just didn’t give enough energy,” said Doncic, who was 7 of 21 from the field. “They won one game. We’ve just got to focus on the next one.”

The Wolves have led in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter of every game in the series, and this time they finished the job.

Towns, who picked up his fifth foul midway through the third quarter, put the Wolves ahead for good on three-pointer with 5:41 remaining, then hit another from deep the next time down. Edwards put the Wolves up five with a jumper just inside the arc with 39 seconds left, and Minnesota hung on despite Edwards fouling Doncic on a made three-pointer for a three-point Dallas deficit with 12 seconds to go. Doncic missed the free throw, and Naz Reid hit a bucket to push the margin back to five with 11 seconds remaining.

Towns appeared to be finding a rhythm, scoring 10 points in the first seven minutes of the third quarter before picking up his fifth foul for elbowing PJ Washington in the face as Towns went up for a shot. The call against Towns prompted a technical foul against Finch. He flirted with a second technical, which would have meant an ejection, a few minutes later when Edwards was called for his fourth foul going for a steal against Daniel Gafford.

The Mavs were without rookie center Dereck Lively II, who injured his neck when Towns accidentally kneed him in Game 3. Maxi Kleber, who had been out since 3 May with a separated shoulder, returned to give Dallas another option inside. But Gafford didn’t have his regular tag team partner as a rim protector at center, and the Wolves shot a series-best 53% from the field.

The Wolves avoided being the 16th team out of 21 to get swept after losing the first three games of a series that started at home. Now they’ll try to be just the fourth to force at least six games.