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Eastern Illinois erases 27-point second-half deficit to win at buzzer

Men's College Basketball, Eastern Illinois Panthers, Murray State Racers

With 11:30 to play in the second half Thursday night, Eastern Illinois trailed Murray State 50-23, before Josiah Wallace's 3-pointer at the buzzer capped off a 63-60 win in one of the more remarkable comebacks in NCAA history.

Eastern Illinois became the seventh Division I team to win a game it trailed by at least 27 points in the second half, but the Panthers had less time to make up the deficit than the other teams on the list.

The Panthers chipped away to trim Murray State's lead to 15 with 4 minutes to play before launching a 23-5 rally, shooting 8-for-8 from the field in the furious closing stretch.

Eastern Illinois (13-14) closed to 60-57 when Wallace converted a three-point play with just under a minute to go. Kashawn Charles then hit a 3 with 40 seconds left to tie the game before Wallace put the Panthers ahead for the only time in the game with a shot from well behind the arc as time expired.

Murray State (19-8) had a 99.9% chance to win the game for much of the second half and until there was 6:30 to play, and its win probability was as high as 96.5% with 1:56 left. But the Racers made only two of five shots in the last three minutes and turned the ball over three times.

Eastern Illinois' 27-point comeback is the largest comeback regardless of time remaining since Drexel overcame a 34-point deficit to beat Delaware in 2018 in what was the largest comeback in D-I history.

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