MARIETTA, Ohio  The rest of Division III basketball has long regarded its western frontier as a sparsely-inhabited nether-land. Rumors that there is ball played on the far coast are vague, their confirmation difficult, questions of its quality irrelevant.

Whitman has put the West on the map, for good.

The top-ranked, still-undefeated, impossibly gutty Blues roared back from an 11-point second-half deficit to beat 13th-ranked Rochester 91-87 in an NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament sectional final here Saturday at Ban Johnson Arena, becoming the first Northwest Conference men's team to advance to the NCAA national semifinals.

Whitman (31-0) will face third-ranked Babson, a 102-79 winner over Keene St. (N.H.) in the sectional finals, in the Final Four on March 17 in Salem, Virginia.

The unbelievable was made real on Saturday via multiple heroics:

• Austin Butler playing the final 11 minutes with four personal fouls but no damns given, finishing with 17 points (including seven over the last nine minutes) and 12 rebounds.
• Tim Howell emerging from a deep, dark shooting funk to make four consecutive shots (including two 3-pointers) during the comeback.
• Jack Stewart hitting 3-pointers from just outside Brooklyn.
• Heavy-traffic put-backs by Cedric Jacobs-Jones of Phoenix, Arizona, and by Andrew Harvey of Walla Walla, Washington.
• An offensive rebound by Joey Hewitt that shall heretofore be known in Whitman lore as THE REBOUND.

The list of heroes were as inexhaustible as the game -- and its elimination consequences -- was exhausting.

The Whitman deficit was 11 when Rochester's Mack Montague hit a 3-pointer while being fouled with 16:31 left in the game. It took the Blues almost eight minutes to erase that lead, a comeback that was merely prelude to an overwhelmingly tense dénouement over the last 8 minutes, 59 seconds.

The Yellowjackets (24-5) took their final lead of the game when Zack Ayers made two free throws with 3:14 to go to put the Blues down 83-81. Howell made two free throws to tie it, 83-83, with 2:37 left. Then Butler made a pair of freebies for an 85-83 lead, 2:08 remaining.

Jacob Wittig's free throws tied the game for a final time with 2:07 to play, but Hewitt made two at the line for an 87-85 advantage with 1:24 left.

Butler missed two free throws following a Whitman stop, but Hewitt -- 6 feet, one inches of sophomore impertinence -- on the second ripped the rebound away from Rochester's frontcourt (6-10 and 6-7, respectively).

He was fouled.

He made both free throws for an 89-85 lead with 24.8 seconds left in someone's season, capping a sequence in which the Blues -- the worst free-throw shooting team in their conference -- made 9 of 11 at the suicide stripe.

Sam Borst-Smith's layin with 16.4 seconds left pulled the Yellowjackets within two, but Howell made a free throw, Rochester missed a 3-pointer, Butler inhaled the rebound, and Stewart's free throw with 1.9 seconds left notarized the biggest victory in program history.

Despite very little going right in the first half for Whitman, the Blues trailed just 40-37.

The list of concerns -- a 30-17 rebounding disadvantage, 37.8 percent field goal shooting, 53.8 free throwing shooting, miserable results from outside the 3-point arc, Howell being 2 for 9 from the floor -- belied a style and tempo to Whitman's liking and a steady supply of extra possessions via turnover (12 by the Yellowjackets).


The Blues had no solution for Ayers, who had 19 points and nine rebounds in the first 20 minutes, and no consistent scoring aside from Butler and Stewart, who had 10 points apiece in the first half.

While Rochester (2 for 11 on 3s) struggled as mightily as Whitman (2 for 10) with its 3-point shooting, it consistently made the Blues pay by beating the press for point-blank layins -- and was 11 for 20 on 2-point field goals.

The Yellowjackets exploded out of halftime, making three 3-pointers during a 13-5 run to the 16:31 mark. Howell had 10 points, Stewart six and Jase Harrison five as the Blues outscored Rochester 21-12 to pull within one, 67-66, with 10:11 to go.

Stewart had 22 points, seven rebounds and two steals. He was 5 for 9 on 3-pointers while his mates combined to make just 3 of 19 from deep. Howell had 17 points and two steals, Harrison 14 points and three steals. Jacobs-Jones gobbled up nine rebounds, including six on the offensive glass.

Ayers had 27 points and 15 rebounds for Rochester of the University Athletic Association.

The Yellowjackets were playing in their sixth sectional final.

Whitman was playing in its first.