COLUMBIA, Ky. – March Madness came a few days early as Campbellsville University and Lindsey Wilson College closed the regular season with an electric overtime battle in Biggers Sports Center.

Trailing by as many as 15, and by four or five possessions for most of the second half, Campbellsville rallied to upset the fourth-ranked Blue Raiders, 69-66, in overtime.

CU is now 3-0 against NAIA Top 10 teams this season, beating No. 9 University of Pikeville and No. 3 Georgetown when they were both ranked Top 10 in the fall.

"You've got an atmosphere in here that is just ridiculous. You've got two physical teams going at each other in a huge rivalry … We're fortunate to come out of here with a win," said CU head coach Keith Adkins.

"For a moment we were just trying to survive and avoid a blowout. Our guys responded. Give them all the credit. It's all 13 individuals who put the uniform on and came out. We weren't playing good. We weren't making shots and weren't making plays, and then all of a sudden everything kind of clicked and boom! We put ourselves in a position to win on the road against a good team."

After LWC scored the opening basket of extra time, Addison Smith responded with a 3 in the corner to give the Tigers their first lead, 62-61, since three minutes into the game. On the next possession, Vernon Payne bent the rim in front of the CU cheerleaders with a two-handed jam that brought the entire Tiger bench to its feet and gave the Tigers a three-point lead, 64-61, with 3:39 to play.

Campbellsville had two big defensive stops in the final 15 seconds of the game. While Payne was called for a charge coming out of the time out with 9.4 seconds to play, CU sophomore, and Campbellsville native, Bryton Taylor forced a turnover on the inbounds pass to give the ball back to the Tigers with 8.6 ticks remaining.

Justin Ennis was fouled and knocked down 1-of-2 free throws, giving CU its final 3-point lead, 69-66. LWC was unable to get a good shot off in the final 5.3 seconds.

"There's a lot of people you can point to that made big plays or had a big game for us, but I want to give a special shout out to Bryton Taylor. He'd been sitting for a long time and came in and made two huge defensive plays for us," Adkins said. "He had a loose ball defensive rebound where he goes into our bench and makes the play back out, and then late when he made the defensive play to bang the ball off a Lindsey Wilson player's foot. Those were two huge plays, and that's what you have to have to be successful – guys assuming their roles and making big plays for you."

Campbellsville struggled to shoot 24 percent in the first half of the game, but finished with a 52.9 percent shooting performance in the final 25 minutes, while holding LWC to 34.4 in the second half and overtime.

In regulation, the game started slowly with Lindsey Wilson holding a narrow 9-8 lead on the Tigers after seven minutes of play. That lead quickly grew though, as Bridges and Chase Cox hit back-to-back 3-pointers for the Blue Raiders to extend their lead, 17-8.  

After trailing 31-20 at halftime, Campbellsville worked the margin down to six points on multiple occasions, but Lindsey Wilson continued to keep it a four-to-five-possession game.

While Payne made his way to a 24-point, 11-rebound performance in the game, Ennis was stuck on his first-half leading eight points for most all of the second half. With 3:15 to play, the senior guard finally found the basket again, cutting the score to 57-51 in LWC's favor.

Ennis' basket seemed to awaken his teammates though, as Payne later cut the game to four with an offensive put back and Addison Smith later pulled CU with three, 59-55, by hitting 1-of-2 free throws after securing a defensive rebound with 1:47 to play. Ennis finished with 13 points, while Malik Thomas and Chris Smith each scored 11.

CU forced a turnover on the ensuing possession and Jordan Myers pulled up to hit a 3 after a slow roll around the iron, to even the score, 59-59, with exactly 1:00 remaining.

CU looked to take the lead with just under 35 seconds to play as Addison Smith attacked the basket and scored, but the shot was waved off as Smith was called with a charge.

The Blue Raiders attempted to hold for the last shot. As the clock ticked down to 15 seconds, LWC began to move. Senior point guard Kalen Kimberland lost the handle on the ball and Sean Scott dove on it and called time out before a jump ball could be called. Payne missed an off balanced floater at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

Lindsey Wilson was led in scoring by DeAntra Scott and Chris Bridges with 13 points each. Chase Cox started the game on pace to be a leading scorer for LWC, knocking down 2-of-2 3-poitners in the first five minutes before exiting the game due to injury.

The win clinches the No. 4 seed in the Mid-South Conference Tournament for CU (19-11, 12-8 MSC). The Tigers will meet Shawnee State University in the quarterfinals on Friday, March 1 at 4 p.m. EST in the Frankfort (Ky.) Convention Center. The winner will take on the winner of the 2 p.m. Friday game between Lindsey Wilson College or UVA-Wise in the semifinals Saturday at 2 p.m. EST.

The other MSC quarterfinals Friday will feature the second-seed University of Pikeville vs. St. Catharine College at 6 p.m. EST, followed by third-seed Georgetown College vs. University of the Cumberlands at 8 p.m. EST. The winners of those two games will meet in the semifinals Saturday at 4 p.m. EST.

The MSC Championship will be televised nationwide Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on FOX College Sports.