Diego Fernandez tied the score at 73-all with a pair of free throws with 6:18 left in the second half on Thursday, and the two teams played dead even for the rest of regulation as TBC Eagles Men's Basketball came from behind to force overtime at Johnson University of Florida. In the extra period, however, the Suns of JUFL outscored the Eagles by 8 and won the game 98-90.

Those 90 points for the Eagles tied for the second-highest total this season.

Those two free throws from Fernandez were the last two of eight attempts. All eight went in as part of his 27 points to help lead him to his fourth consecutive contest of scoring 20 or more. In fact, he increased his total in each of those games to 22, 24, 25, and 27 for an average of 24.5 over the span.

[Diego Fernandez got his 4th straight 20+-point game on Thursday.]

Fernandez also has five other games of 15+ points, including two exhibitions against D-1 and D-2 competition.

In the final 6:18 of regulation, the teams tied four other times and changed leads twice. The last basket of regulation came from Johnson's LaNygel McCracken to tie the score at 86-all with 1:43 left to play. Neither team scored again before the buzzer thanks to solid defense from both teams and a block from JUFL's Mike Hill with 15 seconds left.

In overtime, Johnson's Dewey Shannon and Trinity's Xavier Rose traded baskets in the first possession for each team. From there, Johnson's Lawrence Bellamy hit 3 of his team's 4 free throws to help seal the win.

Rose also topped 20 points with a 10-for-14 performance and two of his shots for three to amass his seaosn high of 22. He also assisted 9 other scores and stole 3 possessions from the Suns.

[Xavier Rose scored 22 at Johnson FL on Thursday.]

Rose has now scored double digits in 11 of 17 total games played this season.

Overall, the teams totaled 15 ties and 18 lead changes, and neither team led by more than 8 at any point.

The Eagles shot over 50% from the field for the fourth consecutive game (52% on Thursday), hit 9 of 23 three-pointers (39%), and 9 of 10 free throws (90%). Johnson shot 45.7%, hit 8 threes, and converted 12 of 18 free throws. The difference came on second-chance points, of which the Suns scored 26.

Ian Kanady scored a season-high 14 points on four long three-pointers and a deuce.

[Ian Kanady also hit a new season high in scoring on Thursday.]

DJ Thompson finished the night with 9 points, Jacquez Anderson and Zach Kiadii each totaled 7, and Jace Spinelli and Gavin Korth-Loder each garnered 2.

Bellamy came off the bench for Johnson and led all scorers with 31 points by hitting 8 two-point shots, 3 threes, and 6 foul shots. Akmee Burton scored 21, and Hill totaled 16 to help lead the Suns.

The Eagles will visit the South Region's Trinity College of Florida on Thursday, January 25. The next home game is against NAIA New College of Florida on Thursday, February 1. All five remaining games afterward are within the South Region: two away then three at home.