MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – For moments late in regulation of Saturday's North Eastern Athletic Conference men's basketball semifinal game it looked like fourth-seed Gallaudet University was set to upset top-seed and host Penn St.-Harrisburg. The Bison led by a point with under two minutes to go before the Nittany Lions eventually grew their lead to three, 86-83, with two seconds left. All was not lost for the Bison as freshman Tyler Crace (Westfield, Ind.) made a half court shot as time expired to send the game to overtime.

"We ran an out of bounds play and our first two options were covered so Tyler got the ball and threw it up and got nothing but net," said Gallaudet coach Jeb Barber.

The Bison battled tough with the Nittany Lions in the extra frame but never led. GU pulled to within a point, twice, with its last chance coming with 59 seconds left. Penn St.-Harrisburg (15-10) tacked on a few additional points to win the game 96-91 and advance to Sunday's conference title game against third-seed Wells College.

Gallaudet (17-10) still has an outside chance for a postseason bid to the ECAC Division III South Region basketball championships, which will be announced late on Monday.

"I want to thank our seniors Bobby Siebert and Luther Weedon for putting Gallaudet back on the map as serious contenders in the Middle Atlantic region," said Barber. "With the disappointing loss there will be high expectations for next season. We will return all five starters and eight of our top nine scorers. Our end goal was to make it to the NCAA tournament. We won't budge on that goal next season as the expectations remain high for Bison basketball."

The Bison did write history this season as the 17 games won is a new program record spanning 110 years of Gallaudet men's basketball. GU also won a conference playoff game for the first time since the 1993-94 season. The Bison reached double figures in wins for only the eighth time and only the fifth winning record since the NCAA officially began to keep statistics in 1970.

Gallaudet's conference semifinal game featured 10 lead changes and 11 ties. The Bison took over the first half with eight minutes left before the half. GU closed out the opening half on a 21-15 charge to take a 43-37 lead into the break. The highly contested game was neck-and-neck in the second half as neither team had a lead larger than three over the final 12 minutes of regulation.

The Bison were led by junior guards Brandon McMillan (Frederick, Md.) and Tony Tatum (Gardendale, Ala.), who scored 19 points apiece and grabbed 10 and seven rebounds, respectively.  Tatum added seven assists while McMillan passed out five assists. Senior Luther Weedon (Walkersville, Md.) came off the bench to lead the team with 22 points as he made 6-of-7 shots from 3-point range. Junior forward Layton Seeber (Champaign, Ill.) had another solid all-around game where he scored 11 points, brought down 10 rebounds, passed out nine assists and made one block and one steal. Sophomore forward Danny Kelly (Strongsville, Ohio) scored nine points and four rebounds before he fouled out late in the second half.

Penn St.-Harrisburg had six players in double figures led by David Reisinger's 24 points, 11 rebounds and Kenton Alston's 22 points and 16 rebounds.