BUENA VISTA, Va. - Host Southern Virginia erased an 11-point halftime deficit to steal an 82-79 non-league men's basketball victory in overtime over Shenandoah University Wednesday evening.

Shenandoah (0-1), playing its first game under new head coach Adam Walsh, led 42-31 at the break and by 10 points as late as the 6:10 mark of the second only to see Southern Virginia (1-0) rally.

Trailing 66-56 following a Kwa McDonald 3-pointer at 6:10, SVU scored 12 of the game's next 14 points to knot the contest at 68-all with 2:26 remaining.

The two teams would miss a combined six shots and commit one turnover each heading down the stretch – each missed layups in the final 30 seconds and the Knights had a 3-point attempt with six seconds carom off the rim to Jonah Meredith.

Meredith put SU back on top with a 3-pointer to open overtime, but this would prove to be the Hornets final lead.

Southern Virginia answered with an 8-0 run over the next 62 seconds and never trailed again. Shenandoah was able to cut the deficit to two points on a pair of occasions, but SVU hit three of its final four free throw attempts to clinch the victory.

"I knew the defensive effort wasn't going to be pretty, but I thought we would score enough points to offset our adjustment in that area," Walsh said.

"I am happy with where we are as a team right now. We missed a bunch of easy shots tonight, but I like our effort."

Southern Virginia, which shot 43 percent in regulation, made 4 of its 6 attempts in overtime to clinch the win.

Shenandoah shot 28-of-79 (35 percent) and was outrebounded 56-34.

SVU turned it over 23 times to the Hornets 15.

The SU men open their home slate on Friday with a 6 p.m. non-league contest versus St. Mary's of Maryland.

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