ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University men's basketball team hosted Nazareth College on Saturday afternoon in a battle between two Empire 8 heavyweights.

It was the game of the year as Brewster Marshall (Horseheads, NY / Horseheads) hit a magical three point shot off of a three quarter court baseball pass from Mike Schmidt (Olean, NY / Olean) to send the game into the overtime, where the Saxons (7-6, 1-1 Empire 8) secured their first Empire 8 victory of the season by a score of 103-97.

For AU to even get into position to tie and eventually win the game in the extra period, they had to overcome a large first half deficit that included going down 11-0 to start the game.

Although Marshall was the hero and the spark AU needed to pull off the huge victory, Sam Dagon (Hornell, NY / Hornell) played the game of his life as he notched a career high 32 points in 43 minutes of game action. The career mark for Dagon comes just one day after he posted a career high 25 points against St. John Fisher College.

Hot shooting for Nazareth and turnovers by Alfred dug the Saxons into an early 17-4 hole.

By the mid-point of the first half AU settled and worked the deficit to under 10 points.

Nazareth pushed the lead back up to 14 with just under five minutes to play in the half but Anthony Ruffino (North Tonawanda, NY / Niagara Wheatfield) hit two huge three pointers along with a step back three by Dagon to end the half and make the Nazareth advantage 49-42 at the break.

The Saxons came out in the second half with a different mentality and made it a three point game with just over 17 minutes to play thanks to some tough play inside from Jeremiah Zitz (Irondequoit, NY / Irondequoit).

By the 12 minute mark Alfred gained its first lead, 58-56, when Dagon worked his magic again and nailed yet another triple.

The teams went back and forth over the next few minutes until Nazareth began to heat up from the perimeter and went up by as many as seven with just over two minutes to play.

The Saxons never panicked though, and worked their way back to have the opportunity for a miracle play, which was executed to perfection by Schmidt and Marshall to send the game into overtime tied at 85.

The Saxons quickly jumped ahead in the extra period and never looked back on their way to the magical come from behind victory over the Golden Flyers.

Along with some spectacular individual play, AU put itself in great position by shooting 90 percent from the free throw line and 47 percent from behind the arc.

Marshall ended with 21 points on the day along with six rebounds, two steals and a monstrous block late in the game.

Elliot Bowen (Salamanca, NY / Ellicottville) scored 14 points, grabbed nine boards and blocked two shots.

Schmidt scored nine points and dished out a team high five assists while Zitz and Darren Miller (Seneca Falls, NY / Mynderse) played strong in the post and both finished with eight points.

"Proud of our fight and resolve today," Head Coach Russell Phillips said. "We fell behind early but stayed the course and played within ourselves.  A lot of big individual efforts and this is something we need to build on."

The Saxons will look to build on this huge victory when they travel to Hartwick next Friday at 5:30PM.