WATERTOWN, Wis. -- Hannah Galstad's 19-foot jumper with 37.6 seconds remaining in overtime put the Inferno ahead and Kristen Speerschneider's free throws with 16.8 left secured the 71-68 Alverno College victory over host Maranatha Baptist tonight in Willis-Denny Gymnasium.

Galstad (Holmen, Wis.) had a chance at the end of regulation to give the Inferno (8-15, 5-12 Northern Athletics Conference) the win, but her driving layup as the horn sounded was blocked by the Crusaders' Hallie Nelson. But the senior guard had no problem as she knocked down the go-ahead jumper in the extra period for her 13th point of the game.

The Inferno defense held the Crusaders (13-10, 7-10 NAC) and Alicia Kontowski (South Milwaukee, Wis.) snagged her sixth rebound of the game as she gave the ball to Speerschneider (New Franken, Wis./Luxemburg-Casco) who was immediately fouled and sunk her free-throw attempts for the three-point cushion.

Maranatha got off a potential game-tying 3-point attempt before the final buzzer, but it was off the mark as the Inferno earned their third-straight victory, and second of three in overtime.

The visiting Inferno trailed for a majority of the first half, but never let the Crusaders lead by more than seven points in the game. The visitors finally took back the lead, 50-47, on an Alyssa Jensen (Cudahy, Wis.) 3-pointer with under 9 minutes in regulation. A Kayla Kennedy (Trempealeau, Wis./Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau) free throw 3 minutes later capped off an 8-0 run and gave the Inferno their largest lead of the game, 53-47.

But the Crusaders came storming back with a 13-0 run to put the Inferno down, 60-53, with 3:30 to play in the second half.

Jamie Hoernke (Mt. Horeb, Wis.) ended the Inferno's scoring drought as Amber Meka (Caledonia, Wis./Thomas More) found the slashing Hoernke for an easy two.

After a turnover by Maranatha, Kontowski was fouled and hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to three, 60-57. The Inferno defense would force another turnover and Kontowski drained her second 3-pointer of the game to tie the game and also move her to the front of the Alverno record book as the all-time 3-point leader with 122 career makes from long range.

The senior forward tied Katie Knight's mark of 121, which was set in 2003, at the 14:54 mark in the second half.

Kontowski again came through with a layup after a defensive stop to give the Inferno a 62-60 lead with 1:33 to play in regulation.

"I thought our team played with a lot of poise in the second half," Alverno head coach Brad Duckworth said.

In overtime, Kontowski added two more baskets, which gave the Inferno the lead each occasion. However, shortly after she scored her 18th and final point of the game to give a 67-65 lead with 2 minutes remaining in overtime, Jensen secured her game-high ninth rebound on a quick Crusader attempt, but was whistled for a push off for her fifth foul. Jensen would leave the game with a team-best 19 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the 3-point arc.

A pair of free throws tied up the game and another Inferno foul put the Crusaders' Laci Peterson at the line again, but would hit only one of two attempts before Galstad put the Inferno up for good.

Speerschneider finished the game with 10 points, while Meka added six and a team-high four assists.

The Crusaders were led by Nelson's game-high 20 points on 4-of-7 shooting from long range.

Both teams shot well from the free-throw line as the Inferno shot 75 percent (15-of-20) and the Crusaders 86 percent (18-of-21), but the Inferno doubled up the 3-point makes 8-4, and forced 20 Crusaders' turnovers.

The loss knocks Maranatha out of contention for the last spot in the NAC Tournament, as the Inferno swept the season series.

Alverno looks to continue to play the role of the spoiler in their next game at Marian University on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. up in Fond du Lac, Wis.