ATHENS — After some high school March Madness in the Convo Tuesday night, Big Red is going to the Elite 8 for the first time since 1985.

Santino Haney drove to the paint and got a shot to fall with 2.5 seconds left in overtime, lifting Steubenville to a thrilling 74-72 victory over Columbus Bishop Hartley in the Division III, Region 11 semifinals inside Ohio University’s Convocation Center.

“This time of the year is about surviving and that’s what we did,” Big Red head coach Mike Haney said. “The whole game, both teams were getting after it and playing hard and giving everything they had. You win and survive and that’s what we did, that’s what it’s all about now.

“It felt the whole night like it was going to be a last shot kind of game and that’s what it was.”

Haney’s bucket came after the game was deadlocked three times in the final two minutes. Big Red led 72-70 with less than a minute to go before the Hawks (18-4) tied the game on a put back from an offensive rebound by Rowan Smith with 19 seconds to go.

Big Red came the other way and called timeout with seven seconds left, setting up the winning play.

Hartley had tied the game on a similar putback at the end of regulation to force the extra period.

“Our guys didn’t hang their heads, they were saying we’re still going to win this game and showed their mental toughness to be able finish it off,” coach Haney said. “It was back and forth, it was a battle. Our guys were able to re-focus and make the next play.”

Overtime started with Cole Bowers knocking down 3s on the first two Big Red (24-1) possessions. He finished with seven long-range makes on the night and a team-high 23 points to go with four rebounds and four assists.

“We needed all of them,” coach Haney said of Bowers’ seven 3s. “We’ll take that any day, he was shooting lights out. We’ll need that again on Saturday.”

Haney tallied 22 on the night, the last two being the biggest two, and had five of those points in overtime. He also grabbed six rebounds and dished four assists.

The game was a back-and-forth battle from start to finish. Big Red led by one after one, two after two and three after three. They started with the first five points of the game, and Hartley came right back to tie it — foreshadowing of things to come.

According to the official stats, the game was deadlocked a total of 11 times and there were 10 lead changes. Neither team had a run bigger than 5-0.

Big Red led by four twice in the second quarter, but never were able to pull ahead by more than two possessions. The pace picked up early in the second quarter with the teams trading buckets, Steubenville holding a 30-28 lead going to the break.

Early in the third quarter, Haney knocked down a 3 to give Big Red its first five-point lead since the first minute of the game, but the Hawks scored the next five to re-tie the game. Big Red then again scored the next five, but again the game was tied after Hartley pushed back.

After the 40-40 deadlock, the score was tied three more times (42-all, 44-all and 46-all) before Big Red led 49-46 going to the fourth quarter on a late Tre Wiggins (14 points) triple, one of his four 3s.

Two Cole Bowers’ treys early in the fourth opened the lead back up to five, then he set up younger brother Landon Bowers (nine points, team-high seven rebounds, team-high five assists, two steals) with an assist to make it a seven point Big Red lead with five minutes to play, the biggest lead for either side in the game.

Hartley, though, was not going away as Kent State commit Jakhi Calloway swished a 3 the other way to start a Hawks rally, capped by Caleb O’neil tying the game at 61-all with just over a minute to play.

Jermaine Moore sunk a bucket with 26 seconds to go to put Big Red back on top, and the Hawks’ shot to tie it the other way did not fall, but Hartley’s Isaac King grabbed the rebound and got his buzzer-beating putback to fall to extend the game.

In the extra time, however, the late heroics belonged to Big Red.

“The team in red won an exciting game here again,” coach Haney added, alluding to Miami of Ohio’s overtime win in a nationally televised game against Ohio University. That was also an overtime thriller Friday night on the same floor.

While the game was close the whole way, Big Red did lead for more than 28 of the 36 minutes. Steubenville made 12 3s as a team and shot better from beyond the arc (57.1 percent) than they did from two-point range (43.3 percent) and finished 49 percent overall. Hartley shot 52.7 percent and held a narrow 28-26 advantage off the boards. Hartley did most of its damage on the inside, holding a 40-24 advantage in the paint to counter Big Red’s outside sharpshooting.

With the win, which avenged a loss to Hartley in last year’s regionals, Steubenville earned itself another trip to the Convo. They will return to Ohio University for the Region 11 Championship game Saturday afternoon. A first trip to the state Final Four since 1952 will be on the line.

They will take on Columbus Bishop Watterson (21-5) at noon in the Convo. Watterson defeated Marietta 52-42 in the other semifinal in the Convo on Tuesday evening.

“We’ll get a game plan ready (today) and start working toward Watterson,” coach Haney said. “They’re a big team, they have size and we’ll have to be prepared.”

OHSAA Boys Basketball Tournament

Division III, Region 11 semifinal

At the Convocation Center, Ohio University

No. 12 Steubenville 74, No. 3 Bishop Hartley 72 (OT)

(MaxPreps Division III State Ranking)

SHS 15-15-19-14-11 — 74

CBH 14-14-18-17-9 — 72

STEUBENVILLE (24-1): Wiggins 5-14 0-0 14; Haney 6-14 9-10 22; Moore 2-4 0-2 4; C. Bowers 8-12 0-0 23; L. Bowers 3-5 3-4 9; Adams 1-1 0-0 2; Rea 0-1 0-0 0; Edwards 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 25-51, 12-16; 74.

BISHOP HARTLEY (18-4): Calloway 7-17 0-0 17; O’neil 7-14 5-6 22; Easler 4-7 0-0 9; Smith 6-8 1-4 13; C. King 2-6 0-0 5; I. King 3-3 0-0 6. TOTALS: 29-55, 7-10; 72.

3-POINTERS: Steubenville 12-21 (C. Bowers 7, Wiggins 4, Haney); Bishop Hartley 7-18 (Calloway 3, O’neil 2, Easler. C. King). REBOUNDS: Steubenville 26 (L. Bowers 7); Bishop Hartley 28 (Easler 6). ASSISTS: Steubenville 15 (L. Bowers 5); Bishop Hartley 8 (Calloway 5). STEALS: Steubenville 5 (Moore 2, L. Bowers 2); Bishop Hartley 9 (Calloway 4). BLOCKS: Steubenville 2 (Moore, Rea); Bishop Hartley 2 (O’neil 2). TURNOVERS: Steubenville 12; Bishop Hartley 13.