Alli Smalley sunk the big shot then continued to play even bigger.

Smalley’s 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining helped send Sunday’s game against No. 17 Ohio State into overtime. Her 4 points, one assist and one steal paced the No. 20 Tigers in the extra five minutes for an 87-80 victory at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

“We saw our veterans do what veterans do,” coach Nell Fortner said. “And I thought Alli Smalley played like a veteran today.”

A sophomore back at her originally recruited position of shooting guard, Smalley sunk two 3-pointers in the final 2:14 of regulation to help bring the Tigers back from a 6-point deficit.

After missing a jumper that would have given the Tigers the lead, Smalley got another chance when the Tigers took possession with 40 seconds to play. The call was your basic misdirection play, Fortner said, and the Tigers executed it perfectly.

Smalley curled around a pick and took an open 3 to tie the game, eliciting an above-average eruption from the 2,661 in attendance.

The normally reserved Smalley even got caught up in the moment herself, pumping her fist and screaming before returning to defense.

“She never does that,” Fortner said. “That’s as fired up as I’ve seen her.”

That fire continued on Auburn’s final defensive stand, as Ohio State’s Samantha Prahalis’ last-second shot missed everything and the Tigers rode a heavy dose of momentum into overtime.

Smalley and Sherell Hobbs led the Tigers with 23 points apiece, and carried the load in overtime, when it appeared the Tigers had just gotten back from a 20-minute break, while the Buckeyes (3-1) looked out of gas.

Whitney Boddie hit a quick jumper and Smalley followed with a steal and fast-break layup to put Auburn ahead for good just 40 seconds into the extra period. Hobbs scored 6 of Auburn’s final 8 points to help make the extra five minutes not nearly as close as the previous 40.

“Everybody just kind of turned it up a notch in overtime,” Fortner said. “I think it’s a credit to our conditioning and the work we’ve put up to this point in the season. It really paid off.

Smalley’s big shot was set up by Auburn’s inability to hold on to the double-digit lead it built early in the second half.

The Tigers scored just 5 points in a nearly nine-minute stretch, while the Buckeyes rattled off 24 to take their biggest lead of the game, 66-58, with 6:08 to play.

Ohio State’s Jantel Lavender, who led the Buckeyes with 20 points, played a big part in the run, scoring eight consecutive points at one stretch. But the Tigers kept her bottled up for the rest of the game, forcing her to miss 18 of her 27 shots.

“That stat jumps out in a positive way,” Fortner said. “She can take 50 shots, and as long as she makes nine, I’m OK with that.”

Smalley’s 3-pointer took the game out of the Buckeyes’ favor for the first time since 9:20 remained in the second half, and sent the Tigers on their way to a 4-0 start and a likely jump in the new top 25 poll, which is released today.

“It’s a signature win,” said Boddie, who finished with 14 points and 11 assists. “We want to go undefeated. You want to beat everyone. It’s just another step toward our goal.

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