In what will go down as one of the best games in UMass men’s basketball and Atlantic 10 history, the Minutemen somehow, some way overcame sickness, foul trouble and 39 team fouls to defeat Fordham 120-118 in a triple-overtime marathon that lasted nearly four hours on the 100th anniversary of Rose Hill Gymnasium in the Bronx on Wednesday night.

Rahsool Diggins erupted for not only a career high, but a single-game program record 46 points, going 8-for-13 from 3-point range in 49 minutes of action – playing through a stomach bug that forced him to vomit in a trash can on the sidelines in the first half.

Diggins continued to deliver every time UMass called upon him, including a deep 3 when the Minutemen were down by five in the third OT which cut the lead to two.

“I’m kind of dealing with a bug right now,” Diggins said. “Just the will to win. Road wins are so hard. Trying to get the team on the road and stack wins… We kind of hurt ourselves today, but we fought through it, came back and got a stop, got a rebound and won the game.”

Daniel Rivera also picked a perfect time for his best game in a UMass uniform, as the Bryant transfer scored the game-tying, and game-winning layup 36 seconds apart from each other. The Minutemen ended the night on a 7-1 run after trailing 118-114 with two minutes to go. Rivera put up a season-high 29 points and added 12 huge rebounds.

It was Diggins and Rivera going back and forth in the clutch that helped UMass earn its second Atlantic 10 win of the season.

“We’re the seniors of the team,” Diggins said, referring to he and Rivera. “We got a lot of young guys, a lot of guys that are filling in new roles. We stepped up today. [Rivera is] in his home town, so he put on a show for his family. Just the will to win, honestly. That’s all I can say.”

UMass (7-11, 2-3 A-10) was ahead by 10 in regulation with 10 minutes to go. That 57-47 lead quickly vanished and come the five-minute mark, Fordham held a 67-66 advantage that blossomed to 70-66 after a Jahmere Tripp 3-pointer. Marqui Worthy would go on to bury the biggest shot of his career, knocking down a game-tying long ball with seven seconds left to ultimately send the game to its first overtime.

Each team scored 19 points in that initial extra frame. UMass blew a 97-92 lead with eight seconds left, and fouled Romad Dean on a half-court heave that awarded him three free throws and a chance to tie it up and send it to another session. Dean calmly sank all three, and double overtime ensued.

The Minutemen blew several chances in both regulation and overtime to head back to Amherst with a win.

“Road wins, you don’t get on the bus and complain, you’re just happy that you got a win – especially with all these close games that we’ve lost this year,” UMass head coach Frank Martin said. “For us not to win this game in regulation is embarrassing, but that’s something we can fix on the way home. It’s not time to complain about it right now.”

Fordham’s Zach Riley made a 3 to put the Rams ahead 108-107 with 30 seconds left in the second OT, but Akil Watson sank a free throw on the next UMass possession to tie it up and force yet another overtime. And although the Minutemen faced the aforementioned five-point hole early in the frame, they never blinked – and found a way to come back and win.

UMass exited the Bronx with a victory despite Jaylen Curry, Jayden Ndjigue, Worthy and Daniel Hankins-Sanford – four of its most consistent rotational pieces – all fouling out. Add in Fordham’s five fouled out players and Wednesday tied the record for the most fouled-out players in a game in NCAA history. The 79 fouls called were tied for the second-most fouls called in a single game since 1954, and the two teams combined for a whopping 122 free throws attempted.

Elsewhere, Wednesday was UMass’ first 3OT game since Jan. 8, 2005 when the Minutemen hosted Xavier. The Minutemen’s 120 points tied a program record. On the day in which Rose Hill Gymnasium turned a century old, it witnessed the most points ever in the storied history of the arena – and saw Diggins break UMass’ single-game scoring mark as well as the Rose Hill Gymnasium single-game scoring record.

Wednesday’s game will be a moment in which all fans who watched or listened, and definitely those who attended, are going to remember for the rest of their college basketball fanhood.

Records were broken everywhere, and even better, UMass pulled out the victory.