The crowd at Haehl Pavilion roared as the Bear Bubs battled to tie the second-round game in the Northern California Regional playoff and cruised to an 86-76 victory in overtime, defeating Merritt College on March 1.

After a slow start the Santa Rosa Junior College men’s basketball team was down 24-33 at the half.

“We’ve got to do a better job with the defense and keeping the ball out of the lane,” said head coach Craig McMillan to the team at halftime. “If we did that we were going to win the basketball game.”

SRJC fought back from the deficit in the second half to threaten Merritt’s lead.

The Bear Cubs took their first lead of the game with nine minutes left to play. Team captain Alec Kobre made a layup on a drive to the basket from an inbound pass and the scoreboard read 50-49.

From that point on, the game was intense.

The lead traded back and forth, magnifying with each possession, while as SRJC guard Davone Oliver put it, “the loudest crowd we’ve had this year by far,” chanted “D-fense” and stood up every time SRJC put up a three point shot.

“Rebounding was key,” said starting center Luke Cocheran. “We really started making our shots in last eight, nine minutes.”

The Bear Cubs were down by one point with five minutes left to play after Kobre hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game. An opportunity to take the lead brought the crowd to their feet.

The crowd erupted when Davone Oliver made a 3-pointer while getting fouled and SRJC took the lead again, the score at 58-56.

Luke Cocheran kept his team in the game by making a crucial block on defense as time ran down.

Matt Hayes, who lead the Bear Cubs with 25 points, hit two free throws, bringing the game to a 65-63 SRJC lead, but Merritt tied the game on the next possession and Davone Oliver couldn’t get a desperate, game-winning drive to fall in the hoop with time running out.

“When we were down fourth quarter, overtime, [coach] said, ‘It’s winning time’, that’s what we came out and did,” Hayes said.

The Bear Cubs lost a double overtime game in preseason that team captain Alec Kobre felt the team should have won.

“This time we weren’t going to lose, we just had to get a couple stops,” he said.

In the five minute overtime period Hayes scored 9 points and the home crowd fueled the team towards a 10-point victory.

“Second half I got hot a little bit, and then I saw Matt [Hayes], he started getting hot, that’s how its kind of been all year, it was a big win.” Alec Kobre said.

SRJC’s leading rebounder Cory Hammell, who averages 7.7 rebounds a game, left the game with an injured foot and had to walk out on crutches after the game. His X-Rays came up negative but he has a sprained ligament in his foot, known as “turf-toe,” and hopes to be able to play on Wednesday although he has not been able to practice.

SRJC had five players score in double digits: Hayes-25, Kobre-21, Oliver-18, Cocheran-12 and Hammell-10.

The No. 3 Bear Cubs play sixth-seeded Ohlone College 7:30 p.m. March 5 at Haehl Pavilion for the third round of the playoffs.