COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. â€" The Texas Lutheran Bulldogs will play for a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season co-championship after claiming a 61-58 overtime win Sunday against Colorado College.
 
TLU (15-9, 10-3 SCAC) survived the Tigers' final offensive possession in overtime. On that possession, the Bulldogs limited CC to a long, contested three-point attempt and a two-point shot (at the buzzer) and walked out of Reid Arena with a crucial conference win.
 
Colorado College dropped to 13-12 overall and to 7-7 in the SCAC. TLU swept both regular-season meetings from the Tigers.
 
The Bulldogs' victory sets up a Friday night showdown in TLU's Memorial Gymnasium. TLU must defeat Southwestern University to claim a share of the SCAC regular-season crown and remain in the hunt for the conference tournament's top seed.
 
The TLU win Sunday in Colorado assured the Bulldogs of a first-round bye in the upcoming SCAC Championship Tournament, set for Feb. 27-March 1 in Irving, Texas (at the University of Dallas).
 
TLU senior forward Donte McGee (Victoria/Memorial/Texas A&M-Kingsville) made back-to-back lay-ups in the closing moments of regulation to give the Bulldogs a two-point lead.
 
TLU still held a 50-48 lead with less than 20 seconds to play, but CC guard Justin Berardino banked-in a short jumper with seven seconds remaining. TLU hurried down the floor but a last-second shot fell short.
 
In overtime, TLU quickly fell behind by four, 54-50, but sophomore shooting guard Jordan Kouremetis (San Antonio/O'Connor) hit a pair of three-pointers to put the Bulldogs up one, 57-56, with 1:37 on the clock.
 
Two missed CC free throws and a missed CC jumper resulted in a defensive rebound for Sterling Holmes (San Antonio/Antonian/Richland College), who then sank a pair of free throws to give the Bulldogs a three-point lead.
 
After a Russell Clark lay-up brought CC within one with 29 seconds in the OT, Kouremetis sank two more free throws for another three-point Bulldog advantage.
 
Kouremetis led TLU with 18 points. McGee added 16 points and 13 rebounds.
 
The Bulldogs out-rebounded CC 42-31 and collected eight more offensive rebounds.
 
Freshman forward Matthew Gillette (Spring/Klein) contributed a career-high nine rebounds and career-best seven points off the Bulldog bench.
 
Holmes, TLU's sophomore point guard, added six rebounds, five assists and four points.
 
The Bulldogs won despite shooting just 36.4 percent from the floor, 35.3 percent from the three-point line, and 62.5 percent from the foul line.
 
TLU limited CC to 39.6 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from the three-point line.
 
Berardino led the Tigers with 18 points, two assists and two steals.
 
CC's leading-scorer and rebounding Chris Lesnansky was held to seven points and three rebounds. He was 3-for-9 from the field. Lesnansky did have four blocks.