ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Survive and advance.

Some would say it’s the motto of college basketball programs heading into postseason tournaments. Regardless of a team’s seeding or its skill level in the regular season, all a program needs to do is survive and advance to the next round.

Quinnipiac women’s basketball’s first-round matchup against Saint Peter’s epitomized this axiom, with the Bobcats pulling out a gritty 68-63 overtime win Tuesday afternoon.

“I felt really confident in our ability to withstand the storm, and then do what was necessary to win the game,” head coach Tricia Fabbri said.

The start of this one was unlike the previous two contests between Quinnipiac and Saint Peter’s this season. It was fast and full of offense.

“We knew we had to go out there, and we had to throw the first punch,” freshman guard Karson Martin said. “We had a great game plan and it paid off.”

Despite early foul trouble from freshman guard Paige Girardi and junior forward Grace LaBarge, the Bobcats walked in lockstep with the Peacocks in the first quarter.

Freshman forward Fatmata Janneh scored all five of the Peacocks’ first points, but Quinnipiac freshman forward Anna Foley used her jumper, and LaBarge and Martin kept up with Saint Peter’s.

Later in the frame, Quinnipiac and Saint Peter’s were like NFL kickers going head-to-head down the wire: trading threes.

Peacocks’ graduate forward Maria Fux knocked one down, then LaBarge hit one. Next, senior guard Rachel Kuhl buried one from beyond the arc and it was capped off by Quinnipiac freshman guard Ava Sollenne.

With some free throws by sophomore guard Bri Bowen, the Bobcats led 22-15 at the end of the first.

In the second, Martin and Sollenne knocked down some more threes, Foley continued to pressure the post and O’Donnell got involved scoring a couple.

By the buzzer, Quinnipiac had an on-paper, stable 37-28 lead.

But it was never the case.

Quinnipiac has struggled all season coming out into the third quarter, and Saint Peter’s gave it an immediate test, and continued to test it for the rest of the game.

In what could be her final collegiate basketball game, Peacocks’ graduate guard Mikia Keith knocked down back-to-back threes to cut the Bobcats’ lead to 37-34.

For a team that’s been tested all year and had to overcome adversity, this was Quinnipiac’s biggest challenge so far. How it responded here determined the game.

So, how did the Bobcats respond?

Well they did what they did all day. Sollenne and Martin carried the weight.

The freshmen scored from downtown, first up was Sollenne, which gave Quinnipiac a six-point cushion. Following that, Martin rebounded a sophomore forward Ella O’Donnell miss and made her own three, to put the Bobcats up nine.

Martin and Sollenne had career days, and today was no exaggeration.

In so far their biggest game of their careers, the freshmen played all 45 minutes, Martin scored 18 while Sollenne scored 19. Sollenne was 60% from the field, while Martin was that from three.

“We’ve had to deal with a bunch of adversity,” Sollenne said. “We’ve been emphasizing sticking together as a team, and not letting moments like that break us apart.”

This game was building up to be a dogfight, and the fourth quarter delivered on that.

Saint Peter’s — especially Janneh — played better than Quinnipiac, outscoring the Bobcats 11-6 in the frame.

“That goes for who we are and what we represent as a team,” Saint Peter’s sophomore guard Jada Leonard said about the fourth quarter. “We’re a hardworking team, we’re gritty, we’re going to get on the floor.”

Janneh herself had seven of the Peacocks’ 11 in the frame, punctuated by a three-point play at the basket with 3:49 left in the fourth.

The fourth came down to the final possession, which Quinnipiac had control of.

5.8 seconds left in the game. Girardi has the ball.

She charges toward the basket, lays it up off the glass, it hits the rim and falls to the floor.

Overtime in Atlantic City.

Saint Peter’s sophomore guard Reilly Sunday nailed a free throw. Then Foley hit a fadeaway, and Sunday laid the rock up.

At that point, Sollenne took over. The Greenwich, Connecticut, native was straight cash, knocking down two major back-to-back threes (with a Janneh layup in there) to give Quinnipiac a 62-59 lead with a little over two minutes remaining.

Foley made two free throws and fouled out a few seconds later. From that point on, the Bobcats knew who they were playing for.

“She had worked her butt off the whole entire game,” Sollenne said. “We knew in that moment, we were doing it for her.”

Sunday made some more free throws. But LaBarge and Martin iced the game, hitting their free throws down the stretch and getting the Bobcats the 68-63 win.

Survived and advanced. But the Bobcats desire is beyond to just survive and advance.

“We’re not going home,” Martin said.

Quinnipiac plays No. 2 Niagara tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.