(Dover, Del.) – Saturday afternoon, the Delaware State women's basketball team (8-19, 3-12 MEAC) needed overtime to pull out an emotional 64-61 victory over the Howard Bison (10-11, 6-8 MEAC) in its final home game of the season, behind guard Raven Bankston pouring in a career-high 38 points (14-of-32) in 38 minutes of action.

For DSU, this win over HU was its first since Feb. 9, 2009, while the Bison dropped their sixth contest out of the last seven games.

"I'm really proud of our effort to get down and for Howard to take the lead and for us to keep fighting back," said head coach Tamika Louis after the game.

"It's really a testament of these kids trying to be focused and trying to play for somebody other than themselves and just really focus on playing for Deanna (Harmon)."

With DSU leading 29-17 at the break, the Bison battled back to make it a 35-33 contest after a Te'Shiya Heslip layup with 14:16 left in regulation.  In addition, Harmon picked up her fourth foul at the 13:49 mark and was forced to take a seat. 

"It was very tough knowing that my team needed me on the court, but they just kept playing and fighting and I commend them for that," said Harmon, who is the lone senior for DSU this season.

Luckily, the Lady Hornets did just that and made it a 43-35 ball game after forward Tylinn Carter split a pair of free throws with 8:48 remaining.

As the half progressed, HU's defense tightened up to hold DSU to just two points for almost five minutes.  As a result, the Bison knotted the game at 45 after guard Shavonne Duckett drained a free throw to complete a three-point play with 4:22 left.

On Howard's next trip down, same score, center Victoria Gonzalez found Duckett on the break for a layup to give her squad the lead.  Trailing for the first time since 12:56 mark in the opening stanza, Louis called a 20-second timeout to rally her troops.

Fortunately for the Lady Hornets, Bankston picked up the offensive slack and scored four unanswered points to put her squad up 49-47 with 1:28 left on the clock.

Down the stretch, Bankston continued to carry the load and drained two free throws to give DSU a 53-50 lead with 14 seconds to play.  With HU trying to inbound the ball on the ensuing possession, guard Jade Washington came up away with a steal and was fouled by Heslip with only a second gone by.

At the line for two shots, Washington missed both attempts, resulting in Johnson grabbing one of her nine rebounds on the afternoon.  Not taking a timeout, HU pushed the ball up the floor as guard Jasmine Hill drained a deep three to tie the game with seven seconds left.

DSU, meanwhile, decided not to take a timeout and pushed the ball up the floor as well.  With time winding down, Harmon put up a long trey that hit the front of the iron as time expired to send the game into overtime.

"Well, I'm not really a three-point shooter but if it goes in, then hey, we get the win," said Harmon.

"But at the end of the day, I felt like we were going to get the win because we had the momentum and it was an emotional game."

Coming into Saturday's contest, the Lady Hornets were 2-0 in overtime games this season.

In the extra period, the Hornets found themselves down 61-59 at the 2:22 mark with Hill draining three free throws after drawing a shooting foul on guard Diamond Williams beyond the arc. 

However, DSU answered with Harmon completing a three-point play to put her squad up by one with 2:04 remaining.

For almost the rest of the game, neither team scored as the Lady Hornets maintained their one-point lead with less than 30 seconds to play. However, coming out of a timeout, the Bison squandered away an opportunity to get a shot off due to Washington coming up huge once again with a steal and was fouled by Duckett with eight seconds left.

In an attempt to redeem herself at the line, Washington missed her first attempt, but bounced back to nail the second try to give DSU a 63-61 lead.

"That last free throw was for Deanna, so I just told myself just do it for her," said Washington, who finished with seven points (3-of-4), five rebounds, three assists and two steals off the bench after missing the last game  because of a sore hamstring.

After Washington's trip to the line, HU committed another turnover, this time with Bankston coming away with a steal and drawing Hill's fifth foul.  Bankston, however, did leave the door open for the Bison by splitting her free throw attempts.

Nevertheless, the Hornets held steady on the other end as Carter picked off a pass made by Heslip to seal the win.    

When the final buzzer sounded, Bankston scored 26 of her 38 points in the second half, which is the third most in DSU single-game history.  After the game, Bankston talked about shaking off a slow start to get her game going in the second half.

"At first, my shot wasn't falling but I kept it together for Deanna because this was her senior night and I wanted to make her proud," said the reigning MEAC Player of the Week, who was 9-of-10 (.900) from the charity stripe.

In the case of Harmon, she tallied 14 points (5-of-13) as the only other Hornet to score in double figures, to along with eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Offensively, neither squad lit it up from the floor as Delaware State shot 33 percent (23-of-69), while the Bison went 22-of-67 (.328).   

For HU, three players scored in double figures, led by Heslip's 14 points (6-of-17), while Duckett recorded a double-double with 13 points (4-of-10) and 10 rebounds. 

On the glass, the Bison out-rebounded Delaware State, 57-43, with six players totaling at least, including Gonzalez pulling down 10.  

Coming up, the Columbia Blue & Red will close out the regular season this Thursday (5:30 p.m.) at UMES.  Last Saturday, Delaware came away with a 65-54 win over the Hawks at Memorial Hall.