Lima, Ohio — Rack up another crucial win for the Saints. The Aquinas men's basketball team went on the road Wednesday night (Feb. 15) and held off a feisty UNOH squad, 84-82, to guarantee a place in the upcoming WHAC Tournament.

The Racers (10-17, 6-13) desperately needed a win to draw level with the Saints (12-14, 8-11 WHAC) for the eighth and last spot in the conference tournament. Instead, on the penultimate day of the regular season, AQ picked up its third win over the last four games.

Reigning WHAC Player of the Week, senior forward Gabe Overway, provided an encore performance for the Saints after scoring a career-high 32 points in his last game out against Indiana Tech on Senior Day. On Wednesday, Overway poured in 26 points on 10-for-14 shooting, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out four assists.

Sophomore forward Andrew Larson was just as impressive. He scored a new career-high with 21 points for the Saints — only the third time he has scored double-digit points in 24 games played this season — and cleaned up the glass with four offensive, three defensive rebounds.

Aquinas started hot out of the gates with a pair of 3-pointers made by Donovan Brown-Boyd and Devon Boyd to lead 6-0. The Saints ended up shooting 8-for-23 (34.8%) from behind the arc for the contest.

Hunter Bode made a 3-pointer for UNOH to tie the game at 10-10 and Jaden Causwell hit from deep as well to cut the Racers' deficit to one, 31-30, but that's as close as they would get to taking a lead over Aquinas.

The Saints led 41-35 at halftime and came out of the locker room firing with three triples made in the first minute and a half — two from Payton Harley and one from Brown-Boyd.

AQ's lead hovered between 6-12 points for a majority of the second half. The cushion was six points with a minute remaining when the Racers launched one last attempt to save their season.

Trevon Wells made a layup in the paint and Grant Pikkaart connected on a wide-open transition 3-pointer to make the score 83-82 AQ with 27 seconds remaining.

The Racers then wasted a bulk of that time trying to force the Saints to commit a turnover before fouling three times to get into the bonus.

Harley made the first free throw, but gave UNOH a chance to win at the buzzer when his second attempt rolled off the rim. The Racers, without any timeouts, sprinted to the other end of the court where Causwell launched a season-defining 3-pointer. No good.

Aquinas escaped, 84-82, and have officially clinched their spot in the conference tournament with one regular season game left to play. UNOH, on the other hand, was eliminated from making the postseason.

Brown-Boyd and Harley scored 14 and 11 points, respectively, to give AQ four players in double figures. UNOH was led by Biggz Johnson and Wells with 17 points each. Bode added 15 points with a few dunks and seven rebounds.

The Saints shot 51.6% from the floor, scored 44 points in the paint and picked up 26 points from its bench. 

Aquinas closes out the regular season on Saturday (Feb. 15) at (RV) Madonna. A loss locks the Saints into the No. 8 seed for the WHAC Tournament, while a win could possibly see AQ climb to the No. 7 seed or possibly even the No. 6 seed if given some help from around the conference. Tipoff at Madonna is scheduled for 3 p.m.