South Alabama executed at the free-throw line and on the defensive glass down the stretch in a 91-82 overtime victory over Marshall at the Mitchell Center on Thursday night.

The Jaguars scored the game’s final seven points — five of them from the stripe — to hold off the Thundering Herd and stay tied for second place in the Sun Belt Conference. South Alabama (17-8, 9-4 Sun Belt) has now exceeded its overall and conference win total from last season, with five regular-season games still remaining on the schedule.

“What a battle that was,” South Alabama coach Richie Riley said. “Any time two teams meet this late in the season that are up in the standings like these two, how meaningful that game was, it’s going to be a battle. And they have a really good team.

“… We knew it was going to be tough, and they threw some haymakers, and I was proud of the way our guys were able to respond and just keep fighting, and finding a way in that overtime.”

Behind a season-high 26 points from forward Elijah Ormiston, South Alabama led most of the way before Marshall got hot from beyond the arc midway through the second half. The Thundering Herd (15-11, 8-5) hit three 3-pointers as part of a 13-0 to erase a 12-point deficit and jump on top 67-64 with 6:23 remaining, then led 71-66 at the 4:52 mark after four straight points from Dezayne Mingo.

South Alabama kept its poise, however, scoring seven straight — including a 3-point play by Ormiston with 2:59 remaining to go back up 73-71. The teams traded the lead back-and-forth before the Jaguars’ Barry Dunning was called for goal-tending on a shot by Marshall big man Obinna Anochili-Killen to tie it with 11 seconds and USA’s JJ Wheat missed an off-balance 3-pointer off the rim at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.

In the extra period, South Alabama immediately went up by four on back-to-back buckets by Ormiston and Wheat, but Marshall cut the lead to one point with 3:11 left, then two with 2:14 to play. The Jaguars’ Randy Brady and John Broom secured several big rebounds in the final two minutes, with Broom knocking down four straight free throws to end the game.

“It was a turn of events,” South Alabama guard Myles Corey said. “We’re used to people going on runs, and sometimes we struggle offensively. We just know that we’ve got to stay locked on the defensive end and worry about the things that we can control. So if they hit shots, we’ve got to still go down and execute.

“… I’m just glad that we stuck in it. We didn’t get down on ourselves, and we kept playing.”

South Alabama won despite making only two 3-pointers all night, making up for the lack of outside shooting by repeatedly getting to the rim. The Jaguars continually attacked the basket with quick passes inside, winding up with 52 points in the paint and shooting 33 free throws (making 27 of them).

In addition to Ormiston’s season-best night, South Alabama got 18 points and seven rebounds from Dunning and 17 points from Corey — who was 6-for-6 from the free-throw line. Wheat added 10 points, while Broom had eight rebounds and four assists.

Anochili-Killen led Marshall with 20 points, but only six in the second half and overtime. Mikal Dawson added 18 (including six 3-pointers), while Mingo had 14 and Nate Martin pulled down 16 rebounds.

The Thundering Herd made 14 3-pointers, but shot just 29% on 48 attempts. They shot 39% overall to 52% for South Alabama.

“That was an exciting one,” Ormiston said. “… That was such a fun win for the whole team, man.

“The whole student section, every Jag fan there, they brought the energy. We try to bring our energy on the team, and I’m so proud of my guys for the fight. We never gave up.”

South Alabama remains in a four-way tie for second in the Sun Belt, with Troy, Appalachian State and James Madison also all 9-4 in league. The Jaguars now hold head-to-head tiebreakers over Marshall and JMU, and split with Troy (they do not play App State in the regular season).

Arkansas State — which South Alabama beat in Mobile on Jan. 8 and plays in Jonesboro on Wednesday — is one game clear of the field at 10-3 in Sun Belt play. The top two finishers in the regular-season standings get a bye all the way to the semifinals of the conference tournament, which begins March 4 in Pensacola, Fla.

“The guys we play once, if you can own a tiebreaker over them, that’s big in the end,” Riley said. “But every one of these games are so hard. The parity in our league is just a small margin, so it comes down to approaching each one at a time and having the toughness to finish games like this off because that game could have gone either way.”

South Alabama remains at home Saturday, hosting Texas State at 3 p.m.