FRANKFORT, Ky. - As a freshman two years ago, Hayley Newby missed a difficult putback off an intentionally missed free throw that would have kept Freed-Hardeman alive in what turned out to be a first-round upset in the national tournament.

Tonight, she redeemed that miss in a big way - and it helped the Lady Lions advance to the first national championship game in program history.

Newby's follow-up of a Grace Alonso de Armino desperation 3-pointer as time expired sent the game into overtime, where FHU held on for an 88-86 win over third-seeded Wiley (Texas) College on Monday night in the NAIA Fab Four.

The win in this round is the first in five trips for the Lady Lions, who most recently came up short in 2011 and 2013.

It looked like 2014 would also fall into that category as the upstart Wildcats took a 71-69 lead with four seconds left on a running jumper by Kyniddia Purdy.

Newby, though, has often made a habit of being in the right place at the right time for offensive rebounds and was certainly in both this time.

"Being able to put that back, I don't know how that happened," Newby said. "That was a God thing."

"For me, it makes up for it, because that's kind of haunted me since my freshman year. Being able to do that for my team and my seniors to carry us on to the championship game, makes me feel good."

Playing against a deeper and faster Wiley squad, the Lady Lions struggled at times on both ends of the floor and found themselves in an unfamiliar position during the tournament - trailing on the scoreboard. The Wildcats closed the first half on a 10-4 run to take a 41-38 lead into halftime. That lead grew to as many as eight points (50-42) early in the second half after a Danisha Shaw 3-pointer.

Freed-Hardeman slowly chipped away, outscoring Wiley 23-6 over the next eight-plus minutes to take a nine-point lead with 8:58 to play on a traditional 3-point play by Grace Alonso de Armino.

But Wiley, looking to continue its Cinderella run, wouldn't go quietly. FHU missed 11 of its next 13 shots as well as three straight free throws - including two front ends of one-and-ones - as the Wildcats tied the game with 1:30 left and then got what appeared to be the game-winner from Purdy with four seconds to go.

In this case, appearances were deceiving.

Newby's buzzer-beater sent the game to overtime, where a 7-0 FHU run gave the Lady Lions an 82-76 lead and the lead grew to seven points on Taleeah Cross's basket and free throw with :33.4 remaining.

Yet again, the Wildcats made it interesting. Kayla Brown made a quick 3-pointer, and a mishandled exchange in the backcourt gave Purdy an easy basket with :15.4 left. FHU got the ball in to Brittany Montgomery, who was fouled and made two clutch free throws to make it a two-possession game with :7.7 on the clock.

The celebration had to wait momentarily, though, as Purdy got a basket and was fouled, making the free throw to cut the lead to one and giving the Wildcats a chance to steal the inbounds pass.

They didn't, as Montgomery again got the ball and made one-of-two free throws with :1.3 left. Brown's desperation heave from beyond mid-court wasn't close, and then the celebration could begin.

The Lady Lions were able to recover from an off night from 3-point range, going just 3-of-16 after shooting 44.2 percent from there in their three previous tournament games. One of those, however, came at a big time from Cynthia Woodward early in overtime to give FHU a four-point lead.

The win also gets a bit of a monkey off the back of the Lady Lion program, which until tonight had never made it into a national championship game despite having four opportunities to do so previously. In his 20th season at FHU, head coach Dale Neal will finally get his chance to coach in a national championship game.

"It's been a long time, and this is a great bunch to do it with. I'm really pleased with them," he said. "We didn't play smart. We had some adversity there. We played really hard but didn't play that smart. We didn't take advantage of the things we could do and went about eight possessions without scoring, but when it came really crunch time, who better than Hayley to do it for us. I'm really pleased for them."

Newby and Alonso de Armino were their typical selves as both recorded double-doubles for the 45th time this year combined. Newby scored a game-high 32 points and added 13 rebounds while Alonso de Armino went for 15 points and 15 rebounds. Cross also had 15 points and Montgomery added 14.

The win in overtime snapped a streak of five straight overtime losses for FHU in the national championship. The last time FHU won an overtime game was during its first Fab Four run 1999, a 92-91 second-round win over Wayland Baptist (Texas).

Awaiting Freed-Hardeman in the title game will be six-time national champion Oklahoma City, which held on to beat conference-mate John Brown (Ark.) University, 67-65, in the other semifinal. Game time is 6:30 EDT and the game will be broadcast on ESPN3 with Jason Knapp and Lisa Byington calling the action.