CNN
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Chattanooga survived a nail-biting final play to become the first team from the Southern Conference to win the NIT championship, beating UC Irvine 85-84 in overtime on Thursday.
The dramatic final went down to the closing seconds of the extra period, with Anteaters guard Jurian Dixon missing what would have been a championship-winning layup to hand Chattanooga the victory as the buzzer sounded.
An anguished Dixon was instantly comforted by his teammates as Chattanooga’s bench flooded onto the court to celebrate with its players.
“I don’t want to watch that last play,” Chattanooga head coach Dan Earl said after the game.
“But super proud of these guys, as everyone says when you win a championship like this, but they are a wonderful young group. They all remained completely unselfish and played the right way throughout the year.”
It was a rollercoaster game which saw momentum swing between the two teams, but it was Garrison Keeslar who gave the Mocs a narrow lead with just 11 seconds left in OT.
Keeslar sank his go-ahead jumper from the free-throw line just moments after UC Irvine’s 7-foot-1 center Bent Leuchten missed two free throws to squander what could have been a three-point lead for the Anteaters.
The overtime drama was far from over, though. There was still time for Chattanooga guard Honor Huff to miss two free throws which would have all but confirmed the win, giving the Anteaters another chance with just over two seconds remaining on the clock.
With the atmosphere reaching fever pitch, Devin Tillis hurled a full-court pass which was caught by Leuchten before he passed to a relatively open Dixon under the basket. Everyone held their breath as his attempted shot bounced off the rim as time expired.
“This might have been our least efficient offensive game in, I can’t even tell you how long, so there was some great defense involved in this game,” Earl added.
“We were fortunate to come out on top against a very, very good UC Irvine team.”
The Anteaters were playing in their program’s first NIT championship game following a historic season where UC Irvine recorded the most wins in its history (32-7).
Meanwhile, Chattanooga (29-9) tied a program record for wins in a season after losing just one of its last 18 games.