Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

Herzog, a walk-on making just his third career start, finished with a career-high 16 points and grabbed five rebounds, which tied a career high.

"I had to take a quick look at the clock because I didn't know how much time was left," Herzog said of the game's final sequence. "I saw there were three seconds, so I gave a little shot fake and drove to the basket and put one up. I was lucky enough to get the foul. I had two free throws. Coach just brought us to the huddle and told us what not to do after I hit the free throws.

"To have that confidence is one thing — all the players and coaches having confidence in me to knock it down. He told me to hit the first one and miss the second one. After I missed the second one, I had to just take my time, block out all the audience because it was loud in here, just pretend it was like practice and knock it down."

Herzog said the team ran a play called "Bruin," which they drew up in Saturday's shoot-around. They went to it twice in the final two minutes to get Lucas Barker open on two go-ahead layups.

With the score tied at 73-73, KWC went right back to that play. Herzog said the play got "jumbled up" and he ended up getting the ball.

Fittingly.

Herzog scored the first and last points of both halves, and finished 5-of-6 from the field. He was 3-of-3 on field goals.

Herzog keyed a 6-0 start with four points of his own, which Lee said was key for his team's momentum.

KWC (17-6, 9-6 Great Lakes Valley Conference) never trailed in the first half and took a 14-point lead into halftime, thanks to a 3-pointer at the buzzer from Herzog.

He buried another 3 at the start of the second half and the

Panthers went up by 21 on Indy (17-6, 9-6 GLVC) at the 15:18 mark.

Things then began to unravel for KWC midway through the second half. Reece Cheatham, who finished with 22 points, scored 15 straight points for UIndy over a 4:10 span to make it 59-55. During that stretch, KWC was called for back-to-back technical fouls — one on Dazmond Starke and one on Lee. This came shortly after Indy coach Stan Gouard was called for one.

Cheatham cooled off, but James Hollowell was there to pick up his slack. He scored 14 straight in the final 6:13 during the stretch in which the Greyhounds took the lead, first at the 5:31 mark when he gave UIndy a 64-63 lead.

Fortunately for KWC, Barker was there to answer Hollowell on nearly every score. Barker, who finished with a game-high 25 points, scored nine straight in game's final minutes before Herzog's winning free throw.

"There was just some crazy things happening and they started going on a big run," Lee said. "We backed off a little bit. We had some bad body language. Guys had their heads down. But we made enough plays at the end to win the game."

The Panthers were 22-of-30 on free throws, a vast improvement from Thursday night's performance.

"They got to the free throw line more," said Indy coach Stan Gouard, whose team was 15-of-22 on free throws. "That's what it boils down to. We didn't do that. We shied away from contact the entire night and those guys did the opposite and therefore, they had a big lead at halftime."

After helping give his team a late lead, it was Hollowell who committed the costly late foul on Herzog.

Herzog's miss on the front end nearly gave Indy a second life, but he was able to sink the second one to seal it and help KWC tied Indy in the GLVC East standings.

"I was confident in myself, but I had to just keep calm and hit the free throw before I could celebrate," he said. "Once it went in, it was just a great feeling."

Lee said the locker room scene following the game was one of pure joy.

"One of the best parts of coaching is to see that locker room in there and everybody jumping on James Herzog and hugging him and going crazy, because everyone loves James," he said. "I didn't have a lot to say, I just let the group maul James. It was great to see."