Evan Mobley's basket as time expired gave Georgia Southwestern a thrilling 84-82 win at UNC Pembroke on Saturday afternoon.
The Hurricanes were in control most of the game, but almost let it slip away at the end.
Southwestern shot 64 percent from the floor in the first half and took a 19-point lead (47-28) into the break.
GSW picked up where they left off to start the second stanza, building their largest lead of the game, a 24-point advantage (57-33) with 15:55 remaining.
UNCP chipped away at the lead the rest of the way and eventually tied the game at 79-79 with 50 seconds to go.
Southwestern's Dannie Hunt made a layup and converted on an and-one play to put the Hurricanes back up by three with 40 seconds to go. UNCP missed a trey with 26 seconds left but David Moore was able to pull down the rebound and the Braves took a timeout to regroup. It was with seven seconds left that Marcus Heath tied the game up at 82 with a 3-pointer that ignited the home crowd but Mobley's bucket as time expired left the Jones Center in a state of shock.
The Hurricanes had five players score 10 or more points with Chris Rawls recording a team-high 18. Anthony Sargent scored 14 while Mobley, Ric Roderick and Marcus Scott each added 12 to the Canes' total. GSW finished the game shooting 62.8 percent from the floor and converted on 23-of-29 free throws.
Tyler Egli scored a game-high 27 points for UNCP including 19 in the second half in helping the Braves come back from the 24-point deficit. Three other Braves scored in double figures in the game with Demarcus Lyday scoring 20, Marcus Heath scoring 18 and David Moore scoring 11.
UNCP held a 22-0 second-chance points advantage over Southwestern.
The win for GSW secured a spot in the Peach Belt Conference's men's basketball tournament on March 3-8 in Aiken, S.C., and officially eliminated the Braves from the postseason. The Hurricanes now stand at 10-16 overall with a 6-13 mark in the PBC. Pembroke drops its 10th consecutive game to fall to 5-20 on the season with a 2-16 mark in conference.
The Hurricanes return home next Saturday, February 28 to wrap-up the regular season with a homecoming tilt against No. 6-ranked Augusta State.