MEDFORD, Mass. — It was only fitting that after 45 minutes of highly compelling, highly competitive and completely even basketball, Saturday’s second-round NCAA Division III women’s tournament game ended in highly dramatic fashion.

Unfortunately for UNE, that meant pure, raw heartbreak.

The Nor’easters were denied their first-ever trip to the Sweet 16 when Tufts University’s Liz Moynihan drilled an off-balance 3-pointer as time expired to lift the Jumbos to a spine-tingling 57-54 overtime victory in Cousens Gym.

For Tufts (28-1), the fourth-ranked team in the country, it was a genuine feeling of escape afterwards.

“I still haven’t started breathing yet. It was an awesome game, and UNE really brought it,” Jumbos coach Carla Berube said. “They’re tough and scrappy, and they defend very well and were coming up with big plays. So much credit goes to the Nor’easters. I think we feel pretty lucky to have won that game.”

Moynihan’s shot was all the more amazing considering the senior guard was 0-for-8 from the field, including 0-for-7 from behind the arc, up to that point.

But with UNE double-teaming point guard Kelsey Morehead on an in-bounds play with 4.6 seconds left in overtime, Moynihan received the ball near half court and made her way to the 3-point line, where she launched a straight-on shot while stumbling down to her left.

Incredibly, the line-drive shot swished through the net, setting off a massive celebration from the large home crowd.

“I’ve been working to be less of a head case. But sometimes when I’m not in a rhythm, I’ll look to pass up those opportunities, but with the clock running down and being so low, I just decided to pull up and take that,” Moynihan said. “Once I got the ball, there was no going back. I just sort of threw up a prayer.”

Scrambling back to defend, the Nor’easters had gotten a hand in Moynihan’s face, but couldn’t stop her from getting the shot off.

“On that last play, we just wanted to make sure Morehead didn’t get the ball because we felt she has the speed to take the inbounds and get off a good shot the paint in four seconds,” UNE coach Anthony Ewing said.

“(Moynihan) took a defended 3 and made it. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

UNE (27-3) had a chance to win the game in the final seconds of both regulation and overtime but couldn’t convert either time.

The Nor’easters led 48-44 with 2:48 to play in regulation after Lauren Hayden’s lay up, but four points from Tufts’ Hayley Kanner tied the game up with 30 seconds left. Playing for the last shot, UNE took the clock all the way down before Kelly Coleman’s leaner in the lane was blocked by Kanner to send the game into overtime.

“Hayley did a great job all game,” said Berube of Kanner, who used her 6-foot-2-inch frame to hold Coleman to nine points, her second-lowest output of the season.

“We knew going in that was going to be a tough matchup because (Coleman) can take you outside and inside and is very versatile. Hayley did a good job of staying home and moving her feet and just being smart against a player of that caliber.”

UNE again grabbed the lead in overtime, scoring four-straight points to take a 54-51 lead before a Morehead 3 tied the game with 1:18 left.

After the teams traded empty possessions, UNE had a shot to go back up with under 10 seconds left but couldn’t get a shot off as the shot clock ran out with the ball still in point guard Meghan Gribbin’s hands.

Seconds later, it was going through the hoop on the other end.

“We knew that it was winding down, and we knew exactly what we wanted to get, Kelly coming down off the top after I drove left,” Gribbin said. “I’ll take the blame for that; I just executed it too late in the shock clock.”

The game was close throughout. Tufts had started the game by hitting its first four shots to take a quick 8-0 lead, but UNE righted the ship and grabbed a brief 16-15 lead before trailing 20-19 at halftime.

“We knew that we could hang with them at halftime,” Gribbin said. “We outplayed them for most of the game, but when it came down to those final minutes it was just their night to win it.”

Neither team led by more than four at any point during the second half. Tufts looked about to pull away when Michela North hit a penetrating lay up to put the Jumbos up 39-35 with 12 minutes to play.

But the Nor’easters, led by the guard duo of Gribbin (19 points) and Hayden (18 points, nine rebounds), wouldn’t go away, and looked themselves to have nearly sewn things up before Kanner’s play at the end of regulation, and Moynihan’s miracle soon after, sent Tufts into the Sweet 16 for the third-straight year.

“We came up with some big defensive stops and hit some big 3-pointers down the stretch,” Berube said. “Just getting it into overtime was pretty amazing.”

The loss ends the most successful season in UNE program history. Despite falling in the round of 32 for the second year in a row, Ewing viewed his team’s tournament as an unabashed success.

“Last year (in the second round) we stayed with Amherst for six or seven minutes,” he said. “Against this very good Tufts team, we competed to the very end.

“We didn’t get any further in the tournament than last year, but we took a step regardless.”

And with nearly the entire team returning, the Nor’easters are already thinking about next year, which, fittingly, will start with an opening-weekend invitational that will also include Tufts.

“It’s hard right now, but it’s definitely going to fuel our fire,” Gribbin said. “We can’t wait to see them next season.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.