Stan Smith hit a pair of tie-breaking free throws with 9.2 seconds left as Salem University held on for a 59-58 victory over Ohio Dominican University in NCAA Division II men's basketball Thursday at Columbus, Ohio. The winning free throws capped a wild finish as each team hit a pair of three-pointers in the final 94 seconds.
 
Salem (2-1) led by as many as 16 points early in the second half, but Ohio Dominican rallied to tie the game 51-51 with 2:02 left to play. Salem worked the shot clock down and Jordan Forbes hit a three from the right corner to put the Tigers back on top. Ohio Dominican tied the game again with 1:12 left on a three by Sean Marks.
 
Aleksa Dobrijevic capped Salem's next possession with another go-ahead three-pointer from the left corner with 42 seconds remaining. But the Panthers evened the score again at 57-57 on a Zach Szul three-pointer with 28 seconds left.
 
After an Ohio Dominican timeout and with the shot clock off, Salem ran the game clock down to 10 seconds. Smith drew a foul under the basket as his shot went off the glass through the net. But the foul was whistled before the shot attempt and Smith went to the line for two. Smith hit both free throws to give the Tigers a 59-57 lead.
 
Ohio Dominican pushed the ball upcourt and drew a foul on a layup attempt with 1.7 seconds left. The first free throw was good, but the second attempt went off the left side of the rim and Forbes pulled down the rebound on the baseline as time expired.
 
Salem built a 14-point halftime advantage and a Fonz Hale three-pointer with 18:09 left to play gave the Tigers their biggest lead of the game at 41-25. But Salem went scoreless over the next seven minutes and Ohio Dominican (0-1) rallied to tie the game 46-46 on a three-pointer by Marks with 7:48 remaining.
 
Barron Tanner broke the tie with a three-pointer on Salem's ensuing possession and Dobrijevic hit a short jumper to extend the lead to five with 6:56 left to play. But the Tigers would go through a five-minute scoreless drought as the Panthers tied the game again to lead to the finish.
 
In the first half, Hale hit three 3-pointers during a 16-2 run to give Salem a double-digit lead at 20-7 with 10:44 left in the first half. After Ohio Dominican worked the margin back to single digits, three-pointers by Tanner and Tadeas Kapek pushed the Tigers' advantage to 31-19 with 4:04 remaining.
 
Ohio Dominican answered with a three, but Salem held the Panthers scoreless for the final three-plus minutes of the half. Smith hit a three-pointer with 33 seconds left and the Tigers went into the locker room with a 36-22 halftime lead.
 
Hale scored 13 of his team-high 18 points in the first half, while Forbes flirted with a triple-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Tanner shared game-high honors with 12 rebounds.
 
Marks hit six 3-pointers for Ohio Dominican and led all scorers with 23 points. Three Panthers reached double figures in rebounds.
 
Salem is off Friday and then is back in action Saturday as the Tigers travel to Newark, Del., to take on NCAA Division I University of Delaware. Tip-off is 2 p.m.