Southern Wayne defeats Hunt in overtime thriller

Later in the first quarter, with the Saints leading 21-13, Hunt’s Drew Pittman nailed a three-pointer to cut the Saints’ lead down to five points, but Christopher McDuffie Jr. increased the Saints’ lead back up to seven points on their ensuing possession.

However, on the final play of the first quarter, Hunt’s Jordan Scott put in a layup as the buzzer sounded to make the score 23-18.

Southern Wayne opened up the second quarter with back-to-back layups to take a 27-18 lead, but the Saints struggled to maintain their momentum and only scored three points for the rest of the second quarter, but the Saints’ defense stood strong and held the Warriors to five points in the quarter to take a 30-23 halftime lead. At the start of the third quarter, the Saints found their offensive rhythm again and outscored the Warriors 8-3 to build up a 38-26 lead. The Warriors made a small comeback to cut the Saints’ lead down to eight points, but Boykin was fouled on the final play of the third quarter and made both of his free throws, which made the score 42-32 going into the fourth quarter. Hunt opened up the fourth quarter with a layup and a three-pointer to make the score 42-37. Southern Wayne’s Chris Carmon responded with two free throws to increase the Saints’ lead to seven points, but the Saints didn’t have an answer for Hunt’s offense, and the Warriors eventually cut the Southern Wayne lead down to 44-42.

With a minute left in the game, the Saints increased their lead to 49-44, but Hunt’s Austin Joyner made two free throws to make the score 49-46. After failed attempts to score by both teams, Hunt got the ball with one last chance to score with less than 15 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, and with the ball in Pittman’s hands, he knocked down a long three-pointer with less than six seconds left to tie the game at 49-49 and send the game to overtime. Southern Wayne’s Tyquavious Williams scored the opening basket of overtime when he made one free throw, but Hunt’s Alex Speight answered back on the next possession with a layup to give his team a 51-50 lead.

Williams, who played some of his best basketball of the game in overtime, scored again, this time on a layup to give to reclaim the Southern Wayne lead at 52-51.

The next score of the game came from Carmon, who gave the Saints a three-point lead.

With less than a minute left in overtime, the Warriors still trailed 54-51, and after passing the ball around the court, the ball ended up back in Pittman’s hands, but the Saints were ready for his shot attempt, and before he could get the shot off, Williams stripped the ball from him and took it the length of the floor for an uncontested layup.

The layup from Williams sealed the win, and Southern Wayne went on to win 57-52.

Southern Wayne head coach Brian West said after the game he was happy with how the Saints played in overtime after a difficult fourth quarter.

“No matter how it looked, no matter what calls they didn’t get, no matter how many shots didn’t drop when they needed to, they finished,” West said. “(They) showed that they were ready and they were willing to finish a battle, and I’m good with that.”