The underdog Fords held leads that were as large as 10 points against the top-seeded Diplomats but a second half run by the home team finally ended the Haverford dream.
The Fords held their breath as a last-second McDaniel shot bounced off the rim in a one-point Haverford victory that sends the men into the semifinal round Saturday in Lancaster, Pa.
The Fords hope their Cinderella story continues Saturday in Lancaster when the team plays 19th-ranked Franklin & Marshall in the semifinal round of the 2011 league tournament.
The men's basketball team needed a win to stay in the playoff hunt and got it with Wednesday's victory in Allentown, the first over the Mules on their home court since 2005.
The Fords rallied from a 10-point deficit late in Wednesday's game to pull even with less than two minutes to play, but Ursinus was able to pull away over the final 100 seconds.
A three-point halftime deficit grew into double-digits by the midway point of the second-half, damaging the Fords' chances of knocking off nationally-ranked Franklin & Marshall.
Monday night's men's basketball game was tied 16 times and included nearly a dozen lead changes but in the end the Fords pulled out an overtime victory over visiting Moravian.
Scoring all of his points in the second half, Cam Baker spearheaded a rally by the Fords that took them past Johns Hopkins in the conference opener for each team.