FORT WORTH, TX - No. 24 Texas Wesleyan Men's Basketball (21-9) had more rebounds, more assists, more steals, more bench points, more points in the paint, less turnovers, more points off turnovers and shot 55 percent against the University of Science and Arts-Oklahoma (17-14) Tuesday night at the Sid Richardson Center but somehow was left on the wrong side of a 98-96 victory for the visiting Drovers in the Sooner Athletic Conference Quarterfinal.

Sebastian Karwoski got a look from three with less than five seconds left, but the ball bounced off the rim. He made his first two threes attempted on the night and finished with 17 points and eight rebounds.

Despite the high score, both teams missed opportunities at the foul line. TXWES and USAO combined to miss 26 free throws, 13 by each team. The Drovers hit 12 threes - five by Cameron Hines, who scored a team-high 24 points. The Rams were not far behind with 11 led by David Shepard's season high 18 points on 6-of-7 from downtown, his only miss a shot partially blocked.

The game was outrageously tight. In the second half, the largest lead for either team was five points, when the Rams led 92-87 with 3:58 remaining. The lead changed 23 times in the final 20 minutes.

Akeem White scored a team-high 22 points off the bench in 24 minutes with nine rebounds and four assists. Peyton Sallee added 14 points and seven boards and Davon Berry shook off a slow start to score 12 points while dishing out five assists.

The last time Texas Wesleyan lost an opening round conference tournament game was in 2015 - to USAO - in double-overtime, 86-84.

TXWES will now await the NAIA's national tournament bracket, which consists of 32 teams. 15 teams in nine conference receive automatic bids based on conference size, regular season and conference tournament victors - the SAC receives two automatic bids - one for the regular season champion (Mid-America Christian) and tournament champion (or tournament runner-up if the regular season and tournament champion are the same team). The final 17 teams are selected as at-large squads, determined using the final regular-season Coaches' Top 25 Poll. The complete bracket will be released March 11 at 7 pm CT on Facebook Live. The Men's NAIA National Tournament runs from March 18-24.

Rams resume

• Season sweep over No. 13 Southwestern Assemblies of God
• Victory over No. 9 John Brown February 27
• Season sweep over (RV) Wayland Baptist
• Largest loss just 11 points (six of nine losses have come in overtime or by five points or less