Junior Branden Rushton scored with two seconds left in overtime to lead the Ohio Northern men's basketball team to a 76-74 victory over Hood (Md.) in the 2012-13 season opener Saturday evening.
The Polar Bears (1-0 overall) advance to the finals of the Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) Classic on Sunday at 3 pm and will play either Washington & Jefferson or Penn State-Beaver.
Rushton led four ONU players in double figures in scoring with 21 points.
Junior Dominique Royal scored 16 points, junior Jared Horstman added 13 points and sophomore Lucan Pennington chipped in 10 points.
The victory was the first for ONU's first-year head coach Kevin Byrne.
Justin Stone had a game-high 23 points and Cameron Cook added 18 points for the Blazers (0-1).
Rushton drilled two free throws with 1:23 left in overtime to tie the game at 74-74. Cameron missed a three-pointer with 19 seconds left, the Polar Bears ran the clock down and Rushton made the winning shot.
Royal then stole the inbounds pass to ice the game for the Polar Bears.
Horstman nailed a 3-pointer with 1:25 left in regulation to put ONU up 66-65 and Rushton added a free throw at the 46 second-mark to make it a 67-65 lead.
But Stone tied the game at 67 with a basket with 10 seconds left to send it to overtime.
Northern rallied from a 64-57 deficit with 2:52 left in the game with a 10-1 rally on the back of two three-pointers from Rushton and another by Horstman.
Hood used a 7-0 run to take a 57-49 lead with 6:27 left in the game.
The Polar Bears shot 57.1 percent from the floor for the game (28-of-49), including 75 percent in the overtime and 70 percent in the first half, including a 9-for-21 effort from three-point range.
The Blazers made 29 of 52 field goal attempts for 55.8 percent and were 7 of 8 from three-point range for 87.5 percent.
Hood won the rebounding battle by a 26-25 margin and each team committed 15 turnovers.
