The Pioneers improved to 3-1 on the season while Otterbein completed a four game road trip to Texas, Arkansas, and Kentucky with a 2-2 mark.
Transy shot 50 percent in the first half, hitting 12 of 24 shots, but still trailed by 10 at intermission, 40-30, as the Cardinals had 11 more shots from the field and five more buckets. But the Pioneers charged back in the second half, using a 17-8 run to pull within one, 48-47, on a Joey Searle three. Verax, a first-year player from Pendleton County, had eight points in the run.
Verax's three gave Transy its first lead of the half, 55-54, and the Pioneers went on an 8-4 run to go up by five, 63-58, before Otterbein came back to force a tie on back-to-back buckets by Adam Wells and Tyler Ousley with 1:51 to play. Ross Banaszak hit a field goal to put the visitors up 67-65 with 39 seconds left, but Verax tied it again with two free throws with 23 seconds to play.
Otterbein had three shots at the win, including a desperation heave at the buzzer, but the game went into overtime.
Robert Pendleton scored to give Transy a 69-67 lead, the seventh lead change in the game, only to see Banaszak tie it again. Searle helped the Pioneers regain the lead, but Kevin King, who led Otterbein with 23 points, 14 rebounds, and four assists, tied it again. The final basket was Verax's layup on a nifty high-low pass from Searle with 2:19 to play. Otterbein could manage only an Ousley free throw the rest of the way.
Searle finished with 19 points and six rebounds for Transy and forward Bryan Howard added 15 points, four rebounds and four assists. Ousley had 15 points and eight rebounds for the Cardinals.
Transy shot a blistering 60 percent (17 of 28) in the second half to finish at 55.8 percent for the game. Included in that total was a nine of 19 effort (47.4 percent) from behind the arc. Otterbein shot 46 percent (30 of 65) overall, but just 43 percent in the second half. The Cards were three of 12 from three point range and were outscored 27-9 from long range.
Otterbein had a 34-28 edge in rebounding and each team protected the ball well with Transy committing 14 turnovers, one fewer than the visitors.
The Pioneers continue with their pre-holiday string of home games on Saturday, hosting Thomas More at 7 p.m. Transy will entertain another in-state school, Centre, on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.