Jason Armstead's buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime carried UTPB Men's Basketball into the Heartland Conference Tournament Championships with an 81-79 defeat of #1 seed and tournament host Arkansas-Forth Smith Friday night in Fort Smith, Ark.

Leading by one with four seconds remaining, the Lions missed an opportunity to build on their lead when Miha Glavas missed a pair of frree throws. Anthony Dees grabbed the rebound on the second missed attempt and Armstead pump-faked in the left corner on the other end before draining his only field-goal attempt of the game as the clock expired.

The Falcons led by five in overtime, scoring first on a Dees layup and 3-pointer by Andre Reider to lead 77-72.

UAFS scored the next four until Thomas Feeney hit the back end of a pair at the line to put the Falcons on top by two.

Heartland Player of the Year Jake Toupal gave UAFS its first lead in overtime, hitting his second three of the night for a 79-78 lead. 

The Falcons missed two chances to go back on top the next time down the court on a missed three by Reider and failed layup attempt off an offensive rebound by Keith Martin before Glavas grabbed the rebound and went to the line on the other end.

Glavas sent the game into overtime at the end of the first half, capping a 5-0 run in regulation with a pair of made free throws with 30 seconds to play that tied the game. A basket by Dees was off the mark with four seconds on the clock on the final possession of the second half.

The Falcons had a pair of double-digit leads in each half Friday night, scoring seven straight on three trips down the court. Buckets from Phadarius Taylor and Dwayne Soders put UTPB ahead 22-15 and a three from Aiden Saunders gave the team a 10-point lead at 10:42 of the first half.

UTPB led by as many as 12 in the first, but gave up 13 straight points to give the lead back to UAFS and went into halftime trailing 37-34.

The Falcons fought back in the second half and used a 15-2 run to go from trailing 44-40 to leading 55-46 on a three and pair of free throws by Reider.

A jumper from Feeney at the 11:37 mark of the second put UTPB back on top by 10 points, but the lead was soon erased when the Lions scored 12 of the next 14 points to tie the game for the seventh time of the night at 59-59.

The Falcons never trailed throughout the remainder of the second half and led for the last nine minutes until Glavas tied the game in the last half minute.

Dees led a balanced offensive attack that featured five players in double figures and all nine players that played scoring at least three points with a team-high 14 points and season-high 11 rebounds to lead all players. Martin scored 13 points with seven rebounds and a pair of steals, Madison Turner contributed 12 points, six rebounds and five assists, Thomas Feeney double-doubled with 11 points and 10 boards with five assiists, and Reider contributed 10 points, four rebounds and three assists.

Alex Cooper led all players with 26 points off the bench for Arkansas-Fort Smith and Seth Youngblood added 16 points with three 3-pointers.

The Falcons advance to Saturday afternoon's Championship game at 4 p.m., meeting the winner of #2 Texas A&M International & #3 St. Mary's with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line. UTPB split with the Dustdevils for the season as the road team came out on top in both games, and lost twice to St. Mary's, the first in overtime at home and the second by three points in San Antonio.