FORT WAYNE – The little guy with ticket stubs in his hand and stars in his eyes looked across the autograph table at Ramon Harris and said, “Nice job on the threes.”

“Appreciate it,” Harris said, then signed his name to the tickets.

And while certainly it was the six three-pointers and 20 points off the bench from Harris that contributed greatly to the Mad Ants’ 119-116 overtime victory over Dakota on Sunday at Memorial Coliseum, it was the 6-foot-7 reserve forward’s crucial tip of a Dakota inbounds pass that could have been the biggest moment of the win.

Trailing by eight points going into the final quarter, the Ants (8-12) rallied, got the game into the extra three-minute session tied at 106, then rode the wave of momentum to win for only the fourth time in their last 12 games.

It was two relaxed free throws from Gilbert Brown with 6.4 seconds left in regulation that tied the game. And even though the Ants took a 109-106 lead early in the overtime, Dakota (8-10) got the next six points to go ahead 112-109 with 54.3 seconds left.

Harris, one of the team’s last cuts before the season began but recalled a week later, dropped his sixth three-pointer with 40.9 seconds remaining to bring the Ants even again at 112.

Now it was Dakota’s turn again, this time with two free throws from Justin Johnson with 20.6 seconds left that gave the Wizards a 114-112 lead.

Rushing the ball up the floor, Ants point guard Walker Russell Jr. spun in the lane, got a shot to drop, got fouled and made the free throw for a 115-114 lead with 15.5 seconds left. Dakota called timeout to set up a possible game-winning shot.

But instead of getting the ball in bounds in its forecourt, Harris tipped the ball and started a fast break that led to two free throws from Darnell Lazare with 13.1 seconds remaining.

“I made it look like I was going to double (team) the point, and then I rushed the out of bounds man,” Harris said.

While both teams traded layups, and Dakota misfired at the buzzer on a three-point attempt, it was the deflection from Harris – his sixth steal – that helped secure the Ants win.

Harris, who went to Kentucky, was back in Lexington when he got word that the Ants wanted him back.

“It was more of an answer to my prayers,” said Harris, who attended the open tryout. “I really didn’t want to get a 9-to-5. I didn’t know when my next opportunity would be, and I wanted to be here in Fort Wayne. So when my agent called me and told me that they asked me to come back, I was more ecstatic than anything.”

Him, and the 2,979 ecstatic fans in the Coliseum on Sunday.

Harris was one of four players who had 20 or more points. Lazare led the way with 24, Cameron Jones had 22 and Brown had 20.

stwarden@jg.net