Down two points in overtime on Tuesday night and with the time ticking down, the Georgia Northwestern basketball team watch the West Georgia Tech Knights sent up a prayer.
And got it answered.
With a hand in his face, Bryan Foster threw up an off-balance knuckle ball of a 3-pointer with less than three seconds to play.
But instead of clanking off the rim, the ball caromed off the backboard and miraculously dropped through the hoop to give the Knights a 93-92 lead, and when Darrius Fugh's half-court heave at the buzzer missed it mark, the visitors from Carrollton had escaped the Rossville Athletic Center with an improbable one-point victory.
In a game that featured five ties and 14 lead changes, the Bobcats (9-12) held a 45-44 lead at halftime. The home team would trail 55-53 with just under 12 minutes to play when they would go on their biggest run of the night.
A 12-2 run, highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers by Patrick Simmons, gave Georgia Northwestern a 65-57 lead with 9:38 to remaining.
But the Knights (11-12) would chip away at the deficit, finally retaking a 79-76 lead with 1:20 to play on four consecutive points by Cameron Carter.
Daniel Parrish would hit a clutch bucket for the Bobcats with a minute to play and made 1 of 2 free throws with 32 seconds left to tie the game. Georgia Northwestern missed an offensive putback on the second free throws, giving the Knights a chance to hold for the final shot. But they would turn the ball over with 1.9 seconds left, sending the game to overtime.
The Bobcats would pull out to an 84-79 lead 90 seconds into the extra session, but Joe Williams would drain a 3-pointer with 3:07 to go and Carter answered a runner by Bobcat guard Tyler Shropshire with a 3-point play, which pulled the Knights back to within one.
After an exchange of buckets, and a free throw by Dominic Powell, Fugh sunk two free throws with 30.8 seconds left to put the Bobcats back up by four. But Carter would hit a runner off the glass in the lane with 24 seconds to play to keep it a one-possession game at 92-89.
Shropshire was fouled under the basket and made 1 of 2 with 20.9 ticks remaining and Adrian Tolbert answered with 1 of 2 free throws with 8.2 seconds left. However, the Bobcats could not corral the rebounds and knocked it out of bounds, giving the Knights one final possession.
Despite tight defense on Foster, the 6-foot-3 freshman guard was able to hoist one up from behind the arc with the clock winding down and the Bobcats could only watch in shock as the ball banked in.
Carter finished with 22 points for the Knights, followed by Williams with 18 and Tolbert with 15. Tolbert also had a team-high 10 rebounds.
Fugh and Shropshire shared team-high honors with 25 points apiece for the Bobcats. Shropshire added eight assists and two steals, while only turning the ball over twice while running the point.
Fugh added seven boards, while Powell went for 21 points on the evening.
Georgia Northwestern will be back at home on Thursday to face Crown College at 7 p.m. and the Bobcats and Lady Bobcats will play a doubleheader in Rossville on Saturday. The Lady Bobcats will take on West Georgia Tech at 2, followed by the Bobcats game against Johnson University of Florida at 4.