POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – The fourth-seeded Indiana Tech men's basketball team clawed their way back from an 18 point deficit to force overtime against fifth-seeded and defending national runner-up Dakota Wesleyan, but it was not enough as the Tigers hung on for the 93-89 overtime victory in the first round of the 2016 NAIA Division II Men's Basketball Championship on Thursday evening at Keeter Gymnasium.
 
"Our guys have been resilient all year," said head coach John Peckinpaugh. "We dug ourselves an early hole, our attention to detail at the start of the game wasn't great, but I felt that in the timeout after they (Dakota Wesleyan) went on their run our guys stepped up and played their hearts out. We missed a few free throws and got Tanner (Watkins) a wide-open look and most days those go in for us. I'm so proud of our guys and we're going to miss our four seniors."
 
Miles Robinson had a team-high 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds while Tanner Watkins scored a season-high 21 points while pulling down five rebounds and dishing out three assists in 44 minutes and 33 seconds of action, the most of any player on either team. Tyrece Edwards tied his season-high in scoring with 12 points as the senior went 6-of-7 from the floor and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds while classmate Dominique Walls battled back from early foul trouble to score 11 points and pull down eight rebounds. Lavonte Davis chipped in eight points, seven rebounds and a team-high three blocks.
 
"We overcame a lot of adversity this year," Robinson said. "I'm not surprised we came back. We stuck to the game plan the coaches had for us and we came back as a team."
 
The two teams battled through the opening three and a half minutes with the Warriors taking an early 6-5 lead, but the Tigers would go on a 21-7 run over the next four minutes, including three straight three-pointers from Trae Bergh, who finished with a game-high 40 points on 12-25 shooting, including 6-11 from the three-point line, to take a 28-13 lead with 11:08 to play in the first half.
 
Tech would not lie down lightly however, but slowly clawed their way back into the game, using a 19-6 spurt, including back-to-back triples from Robinson and Watkins, to cut the Tigers lead to two with just under two minutes remaining in the half and went into the locker room trailing 39-34.
 
"We didn't come out with our best effort," Watkins said. "We stayed together though and picked up our intensity and once we had some shots fall for us it got us back into the game."
 
The Tigers would hang on to the lead for most of the second half, going on a run just as when it seemed the Warriors would finally break through to take the lead or tie it up. Robinson and Edwards would keep the Orange and Black in the game with clutch scoring, as the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Newcomer of the Year scored 14 points in the second half and hit back-to-back three pointers at the 13:05 and 12:24 mark to pull Peckinpaugh's team to within two.
 
Edwards would score all 12 of his points in the second half, driving strong to the basket on the majority of them as he scored eight straight from the 6:29 mark to 4:47 remaining in the game to keep the Warriors within one possession.
 
Davis and Robinson converted back-to-back "and-1" plays with less than 90 seconds to go in the game. A strong defensive stand from the Warriors gave them the ball back with 28 seconds left in regulation and Peckinpaugh put the ball in his best players' hands in Robinson. The First-Team All-Conference selection though, would wisely draw in two Tiger defenders and found Walls wide-open for the easy slam dunk to tie the game at 79 with 5.5 seconds left in the game. The Tigers would get a shot off at the buzzer but it rolled off the rim as the two teams headed into overtime.
 
Davis would block a Dakota Wesleyan shot on their first possession, which led to a three from Jantzen Goodwin to give Tech the lead for the first time since the 16:14 mark in the first half. Both sides would trade baskets over the next few possessions, with Jade Miller and Bergh scoring all of the Tigers points, with Bergh scoring the last eight. A missed three-pointer from Watkins with 40 seconds to go put the ball into the hands up Bergh with Tech trailing 88-87. Stepping out to 30 feet from the basket and a defender in his face, he sank a triple to put the Tigers up 91-87 with 13 seconds to go as Dakota Wesleyan would hold on to the hard-fought victory and advance to the second round of the NAIA National Championship.
 
"We could've tucked out tails in between our legs," Walls said. "Coach Peckinpaugh preaches hard work all the time though, and that got us back into overtime."
 
Tech finishes the season with a 23-10 record and will graduate four seniors from this years' team: Edwards, Jaelan Manson, Milos Milidragovic and Walls.
 
"This team has meant everything to me," Edwards said. "When Coach Peckinpaugh got the job he preached toughness and hard work and doing things the right way. I'm going to carry that through the rest of my life wherever I go. Our season has been spectacular."
 
The Tigers will take on eight-seed York, who upset St. Francis (Ill.), the top seed in the Duer bracket, 87-79, in the game following the Warriors at 9:15 CST on Friday.