CLEVELAND – Senior center David Thompson (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior) was named tournament most valuable player, and the Case Western Reserve University men's basketball team earned a thrilling, 92-89 overtime victory versus Kenyon College in the championship game of the 2013 Stephanie Tubbs Jones Memorial Tournament on Saturday night at Horsburgh Gymnasium.

The Spartans improve to 2-0 for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign, the program's last winning season.

Thompson finished the evening with 16 points and nine rebounds. In the two games this weekend, he averaged 19 points and 8.5 boards.

Joining Thompson on the all-tournament team was junior forward Dane McLoughlin (Westerville, Ohio/St. Charles Preparatory), who scored a game-high 22 points tonight with four three-pointers. Junior guard Julien Person (Houston, Texas/Second Baptist) was the unsung hero of the tournament, adding 20 points with several crucial buckets down the stretch in the championship game.

The first half was tightly contested with neither side building a lead of more than four points. The Spartans led twice by four, including 22-18, following a McLoughlin jumper at the 7:04 mark. The Lords led by as many as three on three occasions, the last coming at 35-32 after a Julian Pavlin layup with two minutes left on the clock. Kenyon closed the half with a 36-34 advantage.  

In the early exchanges of the second half, Case broke a 45-45 tie with a 7-0 run that included a McLoughlin four-point play and a pull-up three-pointer by senior guard Tim Chung (Cypress, Calif./Los Alamitos) with 14:01 left in regulation.

Kenyon answered with an 8-2 run and pulled within three, at 63-60, as Jonathan Amador nailed a triple. The Lords chiseled their deficit down to three four more times before eventually making the score 72-70 when Pavlin hit a jumper at 5:11. On the very next possession, Preson answered with a clutch three.

Later in the period, Person a hit long jumper with 52 seconds left to play to give the Spartans a two-point advantage, but Kenyon's Nwadibia tied the score at 80 with a layup in traffic with 5.8 seconds left in regulation.

In overtime, the Spartans took the lead with a Thompson dunk with 3:54 left to play. Kenyon then rattled off three in a row and looked to have the game in hand with a player at the line up by three. Two misses left the door open, and the Spartans eventually regained the upper hand following a three by Chung at 1:10 and a free throw from Person with 39 seconds to play.

Person answered Kenyon's offense with a layup to make the score 90-89 with 19 ticks on the scoreboard. The Lords had an open look at the basket in the final seconds, but a floater was too strong, and Person grabbed the rebound. The third-year guard then went to the line with three seconds left and made two free-throws to seal the win.

The Spartans are on the road for the first time this season in the second game of a women's and men's doubleheader at cross-town rival Baldwin Wallace University at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 19.