RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — For the second game in a row, Clarence Willard had ice water in his veins, this time being clutch all over the floor as the Arkansas Tech men's basketball team charged back to tie the game and send it to overtime before Willard hit a buzzer-beater to top Great American Conference rival Harding 77-76 on senior day Thursday night at Tucker Coliseum.

Down 76-75 with 3.8 seconds left in the extra session, Jay Murphy inbounded to Willard at the top of the key. The senior drove toward the basket, but had the ball swatted out of his hands by a Harding defender, only to bounce right back to him, allowing him to nail the fadeaway jumper from the baseline to give the Wonder Boys (14-13, 10-9 GAC) their fifth win in their last six games and lock up a berth in the conference tournament.
"You just have to play these final moments," Willard said. "Because you can always make the big shot. I told coach I wanted the ball. I just made a big shot last game [a 3-pointer against Southeastern Oklahoma Saturday], and I knew I could do it again."

D.J. Jethroe's 22 points led the way for the Wonder Boys. He added eight rebounds and two assists, while Tyler Friedel netted 16 points, four rebounds and two steals. Willard posted 12 points — all after the break — to go with three boards, Mike Balogun added eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds, and Nick Wayman put up 13 points and five rebounds.

"I didn't think we were going to win either of these last two games with three minutes left to play," coach Chad Kline said. "And I told them when they were kind of looking down in the huddle in overtime, 'If you knew we were going to be in overtime would you have taken it?'

"They had their chances to get rid of us and we stuck around long enough. We've been fighting for our lives for the past month, every game's like a tournament game recently."

The Bisons blitzed out to an early lead, making their first four shots of the game — all 3s — to go up 12-2 in the first 2:25, and the guests stretched the lead all the way to 16 when they went up 23-7 at the 13:34 mark. A Wayman jumper with 10:52 to go in the half started the Wonder Boys back off in the right direction, and a jumper from Jethroe followed by a 3-pointer out of Friedel in the next 50 seconds cut the lead back to single digits.

That was the beginning of a 15-2 run by Tech. Friedel nailed two more triples to make it 27-22 with 7:59 in the half, and a layup from Branden Williams cut the lead to one possession at 27-24 with 5:12 left. The Bisons turned the momentum back in their favor over the next three-plus minutes, scoring 12 straight points to go up 39-24 with 1:47 left. Wayman pulled the Wonder Boys a bit closer before the half, hitting a free throw with 25 ticks left, then grabbing his own miss on the second shot to give his team the final shot before the half. That was a 3-pointer that he hit as the horn sounded, sending the teams to the break with Harding up 41-30.
Murphy hit a layup on Tech's first possession out of the locker room, cutting the lead back to single digits just 20 seconds in. The two sides combined to miss their next nine shots from the floor, with Harding converting a three-point play at the 16:20 mark to make it 44-32, and another Friedel trey cut the deficit to nine once again. The teams went back and forth, with Willard hitting a layup at 13:23 and Jethroe reversing one off the glass at 12:22, both shots cutting the lead to nine. The Wonder Boys then went nearly four minutes without a field goal, going down by as much as 13, but four free throws from Willard in that stretch, followed by a big three-point play by Jethroe made it 55-48 with 8:39 to go.

Jethroe followed with two more huge offensive rebounds and stick-backs, making it 59-52 at the 6:42 mark with his last one. Wayman followed with a big sequence, hitting a free throw to cut the lead to six before drawing a charge on the other end and converting a layup at the other end, making it 59-55 with 3:44 to go. A pair of Harding freebies made it 62-55 with just under three minutes left, followed by a Friedel lay-in to make it a five-point lead once again. With just over two minutes to go, Willard grabbed a big offensive rebound and dished to Balogun, who popped a 3-pointer from the elbow to make it 63-60. A pair of free throws from Wayman at the 1:25 mark cut the lead to one, and a rebound on the other end from Friedel got the ball out to Murphy, who fed it to Jethroe, who knocked down the layup and finished a three-point play to give the Wonder Boys their first lead of the game with just 57 seconds left to play.

Two Harding free throws with 25.7 left tied the game for the first time at 65-65, and with the shot clock off, Tech held for the last shot. Willard took the ball from the point, drove down the left side of the lane, and was fouled putting up a shot with 1.2 seconds left. The senior calmly hit both, but the Wonder Boys were called for a foul with the Bisons trying the last-second heave, and the guests converted both, sending it to overtime tied 67-67.

Harding scored the first four points of the extra session, but Jethroe popped a 3-pointer with 3:50 left to cut it back to one, Murphy thwarted the Bisons' next possession with a steal, and Balogun hit a triple of his own at the 2:45 mark to make it 73-71 Wonder Boys. Harding came up empty on four straight possessions, but converted a three-point play to go back up by one with 44 seconds left, followed by a Jethroe layup and a Harding layup leading into the final possession for the Wonder Boys. A Willard layup wouldn't fall, but the rebound went off Harding out of bounds, giving Tech its final chance.
The Wonder Boys wrap up their regular season with a trip to face Arkansas-Monticello at 3 p.m. Saturday.