UCO guard Eric Cazenave beat Tarleton State last March with a deadly 3-pointer in the regional tournament.

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            This year, it was a steal, a charge and then clutch free throws in overtime that helped Central Oklahoma escape with a thrilling 77-76 overtime win over TSU Thursday in the Lone Star Conference tournament quarterfinal round.

            Central Oklahoma had two make not one, but two improbable comebacks to advance to Saturday's semifinals where they will meet Southwestern Oklahoma. UCO (24-4), the No. 1 seed in the North Division, is looking to become the first team in 10 years to win the LSC tournament in consecutive years.

            Cazenave led the Bronchos with 15 points, along with seven rebounds and four assists. But it was his heroics in the final minute of overtime that led to the win.

            After trailing by as many as nine in the second half, and then nine again with 2:23 to play in overtime, UCO cut the lead to one with 35 seconds to play.

            TSU guard Cortney Hill was driving to the lane when Cazenave poked the ball away from behind. That led to a fastbreak lay-up that Lance Harper missed, but David Thomas was there for the putback to give UCO a 74-73 lead with 16 seconds to play.

            On the ensuing possession, Tarleton had trouble getting the ball into the frontcourt before Cazenave took a charge on TSU's Jeremiah Wilson at midcourt. Obviously upset with the call, Tarleton head coach Lonn Reisman charged onto the court and was whistled for a technical foul.

            Cazenave promptly hit two free throws with one second to play, but Thomas made just one free throw for a four-point UCO lead. On the inbounds pass, Wilson caught the pass near midcourt and banked in a 50-footer at the buzzer, not only closing the game to one, but increasing the importance of Reisman's technical.

            Along with Cazenave, UCO had three other double-digit scorers as Thomas and Adam Terneus each scored 14 points and Harper scored 13 points with 11 rebounds.

            The loss likely ends Tarleton's season, but the Texans definitely made it exciting down the stretch, winning five of their last six regular-season games to sneak into the tournament as the No. 4 seed.

            And it appeared TSU would keep things rolling, taking several big leads on UCO. The Texans were hot from beyond the arc, hitting 13-of-29 3-point attempts, including six from little point guard Effran Bryant. The 5-6 junior guard came up big all day, leading TSU with 19 points. Marlin Cloudy added 17 points and four steals, while Hill scored 13.

            As wild as the overtime session was, the end of regulation was just as exciting. UCO clawed back in the final few minutes, thanks to a pair of clutch 3's by Terneus. Cazenave tied the score with a free throw with 1:03 to play, but after his rebound on a TSU miss, he missed a short jumper with 10 seconds to play. Tarleton got the ball back with one chance to win but Bryant's three rimmed off, forcing the extra period.

            UCO is looking to become the first defending champion to reach the LSC tournament finals since 2000.

CENTRAL OKLAHOMA NOTES

* Central Oklahoma's narrow win over Tarleton State keeps the Bronchos on track to become the league's first repeat champion since Midwestern State, which won the league title in 1999 and 2000.

* With a victory in Saturday night's semifinals, the Bronchos would become the league's first defending championship since Midwestern State in 2000 to return to the championship game the following season.

* The Bronchos entered Thursday's contest as the fourth-best free-throw shooting team in the league at 70.7 percent.  But their touch from the line failed them against the Texans as they hit just 27 of 45 free throws.

* The 45 free throws attempted by the Bronchos against Tarleton State is a new single-game tournament record, breaking the previous record of 42 against both West Texas A&M in 1990 and Texas A&M-Kingsville in 2006.

* The Bronchos entered Thursday's game second in the league in field goal percentage at 46.0 percent, but they had one of their worst shooting days of the season, hitting just 22 of 59 shots from the field to finish the game at 37.3 percent.

* Thursday's game was Central Oklahoma's first overtime game this season, and the victory snapped a three-game Broncho losing streak in overtime games dating back to last season.

* UCO has now won two straight games against Tarleton State by identical 77-76 scores.  The first was last year in the NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament championship game when Eric Cazenave hit a 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left in the game to lift the Bronchos to the regional title.  Both of those UCO victories put an end to Tarleton State's season.

* The Bronchos are making their 17th Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament appearance since 1990, the most of any school in the league in that time frame.  The only years the Bronchos have missed the tournament since 1990 are 1993, 2000 and 2002.

* In those 17 tournaments, UCO is now 11-6 in its tournament-opening game after Thursday's win over Tarleton State.

* The Bronchos are now 4-1 all-time against the Texans in the conference tournament with three straight wins (2007 first round, 2008 semifinals and 2009 quarterfinals).

Tarleton State notes

Tarleton State is now 14-10 in LSC Tournament play

Tarleton State falls to 0-2 in overtime games this season

Effran Bryant led TSU in scoring with 19 points, marking the fourth time this season he has led the team, and second in-a-row

Tarleton State's 33 fouls was the most they have committed this season

This was the fourth-straight game that TSU has had three players score in double figures

This was the fourth time this season Tarleton State had two players grab double-digit rebounds

Central Oklahoma quotes

COACH Terry Evans on game:
"As hard as both teams played, it's a shame someone had to lose that game. Both teams played extremely hard."

Evans on his team:
"These guys kept fighting and kept fighting. These guys never quit."
"Just really proud of these guys' effort. It wasn't our A-game, but you can't fault the effort."

Evans on first half:
The entire first half I didn't think we were playing to well offensively. Didn't think we were playing tough enough."

Eric Cazenave on play that gave UCO lead in OT:
"I just happened to help and steal the ball. Lance was leaking out and missed the layup and David followed up.

Cazenave on atmosphere:
"This type of atmosphere, man, we just love to play in. It's just two hard teams playing against each other.

Lance Harper:
I trust every one of these guys. We weren't going to give up and I knew that."

Tarleton State quotes

Lonn Reisman: "First of all I want to give God the glory for a great season. I praise Him for everything that has happened to make this team a better group."

This was a hard fought and tough basketball game. Give UCO much praise, they played well. It was a very tough, emotional game, and I'm proud of our kids the way they battled in the last month. It says a lot about their character and the kind of kids they are."

(Regarding fouls) 

"It limits you on what you can do under the basket. We tried to do some double teaming and that was successful for a while. It was so tough and hard to be aggressive when you have so many people with four fouls." 

"It is what it is."

"We feel like we could've won. It's been a tough year for us, but I am proud of what we overcame to get ourselves in a position to compete, and I felt like we could compete with anyone here."

Cloudy: "We made it to the regional finals last year and got knocked out by UCO. When we saw that they were our first round game, we were pretty amped up and ready. We just made some crucial mistakes that cost us at the end of the game."