Rollins College made three defensive stops in the final 11.9 seconds of overtime to preserve a 59-57 win over the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers in the first round of the men’s NCAA Division II Tournament South Regional at Arkansas Tech University on Saturday afternoon.
The nationally 11th-ranked Tars (26-5) took a 59-57 lead on a Ryan Ferranti layup with 2:04 left in overtime.
From there, second-seeded Rollins turned it over to its defense.
The Tars missed the front end of three one-and-one opportunities over the final 36 seconds, but they survived by forcing UAH into a missed layup by Jaime Smith with 11.9 seconds remaining and a missed 3-pointer by Derek Johnston with 0.2 seconds left.
The seventh-seeded Chargers (23-7) got one last desperation attempt to tie, but Zane Campbell’s tip-in at the buzzer would not go.
Alabama-Huntsville had taken a 53-51 lead with 39.2 seconds left in regulation on a Johnston 3-pointer. It was his first made field goal of the day.
Rollins College’s Ian Scott answered with the basket that forced overtime — a layup with 17.7 seconds remaining.
Ferranti led the Tars with 13 points. Nick Wolf added 12 points and Myk Brown had 10 points for Rollins.
UAH’s Smith led all scorers with 16 points. Campbell notched 13 points for the Chargers. They are both freshmen.
Rollins advances to the regional semifinals at 6 p.m. Sunday against Barry.
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