ARCATA, Calif. – Showing a flair for the dramatic Thursday night in its matchup with Cal State East Bay in Lumberjack Arena, Humboldt State's women's basketball capped a second-half comeback with a Jovanah Arrington deep three-pointer at the buzzer in overtime to beat the Pioneers, 76-73.

Down by as many as 13 at the 4:59 mark of the third quarter, the Jacks proved to be clutch,  outscoring the Pioneers by six in both the third and fourth periods to erase a 12-point halftime deficit. The overtime period was not filled with offense, HSU scored seven to East Bay's four, but Arrington's lone field goal in the game was exactly what the Jacks needed as the clock expired.

"We drew up a play that was supposed to go to one of our players, but it wasn't open," said Arrington. "So I got the ball from my teammate Isa [Conde] and I just shot it. I shot the same shot that I do every time. I knew the clock was running down and I had to get it up."

HSU took 15 free throws in the second half after earning just four trips to the charity stripe in the first half, a testament to a more aggressive approach in the second stanza. Two of Arrington's free throws found the bottom of the net to make it 71-all in overtime before a Tyla Turner sliding baseline layup gave the Jacks a 73-71 lead. East Bay would then even the score, setting the stage for Arrington's heroics.

In what Lumberjack Head Coach Michelle Bento-Jackson deemed "a game of runs," East Bay opened up taking a 12-3 lead before HSU fought back to even the score at 18 at the conclusion of the first quarter. East Bay kept its foot on the gas in the second quarter, outscoring the Jacks 24-12 going into the break.

"We have certain things we try to do defensively as far as taking our opponents out of their strengths, so to speak," said Bento-Jackson. "I thought we did a very poor job of that in the first half and East Bay played more hungry and were the aggressors the entire first half. That's basically what my talk to the team at halftime was, it was that we weren't playing hungry, and playing with a major sense of urgency like East Bay was. And if we weren't going to do that in the second half, we were going to get embarrassed."

HSU responded, steadily chipping away at the Pioneers' lead with a 17-11 third quarter before outscoring the visitors 22-16 in the fourth to even the score at 69 heading into OT. Bento-Jackson was especially proud of her team's rebounding down the stretch, and thought her team "controlled the situation much better."

Tyla Turner led four Jacks in double figures with 23 points, and Kindall Murie knocked down three treys and and scored 13. Tyra Turner contributed 11, and Conde chipped in 10. Arrington paced the squad with seven rebounds.

"Obviously, we're a much better basketball team when we're getting balance in our scoring," said Bento-Jackson. "We got a lot of contribution tonight from different players and I thought we stayed aggressive in transition, we got some good looks for our shooters in transition, which is always something we emphasize."

The coach praised her team for getting in the bonus early in the fourth quarter by attacking the basket and hitting key free throws. She also gave a special thanks to the fans for providing a great energy, and spurring her team to its big comeback.

The win pushes the Jacks to 12-9 overall and 11-5 CCAA conference as East Bay falls to 13-10, 9-8. The Jacks have little time to celebrate their victory, however, as they host Cal State Monterey Bay on Saturday night in a game with a 5:30 tip time.