DAYTON, Ohio: D.J. Evans is charitably listed at 5-foot-9. His coach and teammates tease him that he looks a foot shorter.

Yet he stood awfully tall for Albany on Tuesday night.

Evans scored 22 points, including two clinching free throws with 12.6 seconds left, to lead the Great Danes to their first NCAA tournament victory.

Evans, an often overlooked component in Albany’s lineup, belied his height with nine rebounds to go with three assists.

“He’s about 4-foot-8, so he’s really impressive,” laughed his running mate at guard, Peter Hooley, who had 20 points. “I don’t think there’s another 4-8 guard who could go in there and get that many boards. He did what he needed to do to get this win.”

It was a signature victory for the America East Conference tournament champs, who had come up empty in three previous trips to the big dance.

“It means a lot,” said an emotional coach Will Brown. “There’s no better feeling. Like I told our kids, we’re going to be in the history books at the University of Albany forever.”

The Great Danes (19-14) advance to meet overall No. 1 seed and top-ranked Florida on Thursday in Orlando. But that was a concern for another day.

It was a wild game of incredible turnarounds, with the Great Danes bolting to leads of 13-0 and 21-2, only to have The Mount (16-17) bounce back with a 21-2 run of its own to pull even.

Hooley, one of three Australians on the Albany roster, hit two free throws with 2:43 remaining to stretch the lead to 65-62. After Julian Norfleet countered with a bucket, Hooley again pounded his way to the basket and lofted a shot over a defender for a 67-64 lead at the 2-minute mark.

It stayed that way with the teams missing big shots. Rashad Whack and Norfleet each missed potential tying 3s — Whack’s rolled almost inside the rim and then bounded away.

“When it hit the rim, I thought it was going to go in,” Whack said softly.

Evans was fouled with 12.6 seconds left and hit both shots to increase the lead to five points — and out of reach of another long-range shot.

Evans was most proud of his rebounding.

“They shot a lot of 3s and there were a lot of long rebounds,” he said with a grin. “I was just at the right place at the right time.”

After playing two years of junior-college ball and sitting behind a senior starter a year ago, Brown told Evans his day would eventually come.

“He’s the happiest kid in the world right now,” Brown said.

Norfleet then missed another 3 and Albany finally could call itself an NCAA winner.

Will Miller, a freshman who came off the bench, led The Mount with 21 points, all on 3s. But he didn’t get off a shot in the last 3:32 after making back-to-back 3s to draw the Mountaineers within a point.

Whack added 16 points and Sam Prescott 14 for The Mount, which electrified the crowd at the University of Dayton with 3-point fireworks. The Mountaineers hit 12 of 37 shots behind the arc to time and again come back from deficits.

The glut of 3-pointers was nothing new for the Mountaineers. They came in with an offense heavily dependent on shots behind the arc. They averaged 9 of 25 on 3-pointers coming in.

North Carolina State 74 Xavier 59: T.J. Warren scored 16 of his 25 points in the second half, showing why he was the ACC’s player of the year, and North Carolina State led most of the way in a victory over Xavier.

N.C. State (22-12) didn’t have much time to celebrate. The 12th-seeded Wolfpack headed to Orlando, Florida, for a game on Thursday against St. Louis in the Midwest Regional.

Warren had the most to do with it. The sensational sophomore made up for a freshman tournament flop on the same floor a year earlier, preventing Xavier (21-14) from getting any traction in the second half.

Center Matt Stainbrook led Xavier with 19 points and nine rebounds despite an injured left knee. Leading scorer Semaj Christon was limited to 14 points, and Xavier made only 2 of 14 shots from beyond the arc.

Xavier was playing in a familiar arena less than an hour from campus. Familiar, but not entirely friendly. Fans of the Dayton Flyers — a long-time rival — booed loudly as they took the court, making for a mixed welcome with a lot of Musketeer fans in the stands as well.

Warren made it all a moot point, helping N.C. State take all the drama out of the game over the final 11 minutes. Ralston Turner added 17 points.