Overtime games are always fun.

And the Xavier boys’ 59-55 squeaker at home Thursday night over Waterloo West was as entertaining as they get.

“For the fans, maybe,” said Saints assistant coach Brad Stovie. “But not for the coaches.”

The visiting Wahawks fell behind early and never led. When it looked like they might be blown away, they came back.

And when the Saints seemed to have it sewn up with a four-point lead and 30 seconds to go, West still didn’t give in.

Then, down by three in regulation with but 10.9 seconds left, Waterloo West Coach Justin Little ordered up the big play he’d been calling all night: The Wahawk  Special.

Slick southpaw sharpshooter Malik Green took a pass in the corner, dribbled twice to his left and with two seconds on the clock let fly a 3-point rainbow to tie the game for the first time since the opening tip.

The dramatics did not end in the overtime session.

Once again, the Saints (8-6, 4-5 MVC) jumped off to a quick start with three straight driving lay-ins (the first two by unexpected sophomores Calvin Winker and Adam McDermott).

With  less than a minute remaining, Green fell down but little Wahawk soph Queshandis Seals knocked down a long trey while falling back to cut the margin to 57-55.

Just as he’d saved his team in regulation with clutch free throw shooting, however, rock steady Saints senior Corbin Woods sealed the victory with a pair from the line.

“I tried to block everything else out,” Woods said of his 8-for-8 free throw performance, with the last four coming at crunch time. “Just focus on you and the basket.”

Xavier Coach Ryan Luehrsmann knew the contest with West (7-7, 4-5 MVC) would be a battle, even after his team sprinted out to a 23-12 lead with 3:40 left in the first half.

“They remind of us Prairie,” he said, bringing up a team that beat the Saints two nights before, 45-31. “They have a number of good athletes who can shoot and have the ability to make plays.

“And they have three guys who are really dangerous breaking you down on the dribble.”

A solid defensive effort, though, contained everyone but Green. The 6-foot floor general led all scorers with 20 points, including four of his team’s eight 3-pointers.

“I thought we communicated a lot better tonight,” Luehrsmann said. “They were talking a lot more to each other, and that helps on defense and on offense.”

Against the quick but much smaller Waterloo front line, the Saints’ offense for the most part consisted of feeding big junior center Matt Nelson.

“We wanted to get it to him inside,” Woods explained. “That’s what you do anytime you have a 6-foot-9 post player.”

Nelson responded with 19 points, with all seven of his field goals from right under the bucket. He also swatted off nine blocked shots.

“My teammates did a good job setting me up,” Nelson said. “All I had to do was make layups.”

Even as he and his assistants were sweating a little bit when the Wahawks rallied from way back to send the game into overtime, Luehrsmann said he was confident his team would pull it out at the end.

“We got those three good looks right away,” he said in describing the overtime period. “We just told them to play strong with the ball and keep playing with poise. We kept playing in control to win it.”

WATERLOO WEST (55): Carderrius Smith 4 1-1 9, Malik Green 7 2-3 20, Terrance Morgan 0 0-0 0, Alex Landers 2 0-0 4, Jacob Meyer 2 0-0 4, Queshandis Seals 2 2-2 8, Xavier Hightower 1 0-1 2, Lance Dunn 1 2-2 5, Lincoln Conrey 1 0-0 3, Tyler Beenken 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 7-9 55.

XAVIER (59): Trey Sampson 2 2-3 7, Adam McDermott 3 3-4 10, Matt Nelson 7 5-8 19, Corbin Woods 1 8-8 10, Robbie Thinnes 2 0-0 5, Calvin Winker 3 0-1 6, Andrew Bisenius 0 0-0 0, Reggie Schulte 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 18-24 59.

Halftime – Xavier 29, Waterloo West 20. 3-point goals – Waterloo West 8 (Green 4, Seals 2, Dunn, Conrey), Xavier 3 (Sampson, McDermott, Thinnes). Total fouls - Waterloo West 18, Xavier 9. Fouled out – none.