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ith 21.6 seconds remaining in overtime and the score tied at 77, Florida Atlantic head coach Michael Curry called upon his sophomore point guard Nick Rutherford to lead the team’s last possession. Rutherford drained the clock and isolated his defender.

He then tossed the ball up and banked it in, giving his Owls a 79-77 lead over Ohio State (7-2)  with one second left on the clock. FAU (3-5) held on for the win on the road, but almost didn’t make it to overtime after looking like it already had the game won.

With 9.7 seconds remaining in regulation, and the score tied at 71, FAU freshman Jailyn Ingram received the inbounds pass, drove toward the baseline, then dribbled the ball out-of-bounds off his own foot. The play appeared to be drawn up for Rutherford to receive the ball at the top of the key.

Seventeen seconds earlier, Rutherford stepped to the line with a one-point lead. He made one of his two foul shots, allowing Ohio State a chance to score from anywhere on the court, as it only needed two points to tie.

The Buckeyes attempted a 3-pointer and missed, but Ohio State’s Trevor Thompson grabbed the rebound and drew a foul on the putback attempt — forcing Owls’ 7-foot junior Ronald Delph out of the game with a fifth foul — and made both of his foul shots to tie the game.

In overtime, it appeared as the Owls misfortunes at the end of regulation would come back to haunt them. Ohio State scored the first four points of the overtime period and had the FAU offense stagnant.

Halfway into overtime, senior Adonis Filer hit a 3-pointer, the Owls first basket since the 1:20 mark of the fourth quarter. The Buckeyes followed with two foul shots, but then FAU closed the game on a 5-0 run, ignited and capped off by Rutherford.

The sophomore point guard finished the game with 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Filer contributed a game-high 23 points.

Three other Owls, freshman Jailyn Ingram, sophomore Jeantal Cylla and junior Frank Booker hit double-digit scoring totals for the game as well.

FAU will next play the University of Miami Hurricanes on Friday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m.

Brendan Feeney is the sports editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @feeney42.