The Hamilton Heights boys basketball team delivered a Winter Homecoming game to remember last Saturday.
The Huskies played Western Boone, and made a stunning comeback with less than a minute to go in the fourth quarter to force overtime. But one extra period wasn’t enough: Heights needed triple overtime to finally get past the Stars 79-73.
It was the first triple overtime game for Chad Ballenger in his 15 years as coach of the Huskies.
“I think Coach (Bill) Bowen one year, they had a five-overtime game with Maconaquah and it was a school record,” said Ballenger. That five-overtime contest was back on Feb. 3, 2006. Heights won that game as well, 49-47.
The Huskies were close to falling to WeBo, as the Stars led 62-56 with under a minute to go. But Heights got clutch shooting from two players: Tillman Etchison’s 3-pointer cut that lead in half, then John Irion drained a triple to tie the game and send it to the first overtime.
“We made plays late,” said Ballenger. “Tillman set the school record tonight, he had 13 assists.”
Etchison put the Huskies in front 67-65 with another 3, but WeBo’s Kaden Bennington made two free throws to tie it up again at the 1:17 mark. Heights held for a last shot, but it didn’t go, and it was on to the second overtime.
Both teams only scored two points in OT No. 2. Simon Knott’s putback got the Huskies up 69-67, and Bennington responded with a floater.
Bennington then scored the opening basket of the third overtime. But Sam Dawson came to the rescue by draining his seventh – yes, seventh – 3-pointer of the game. That put Heights up 72-71, and it never trailed again.
Etchison and Pennington traded two free throws, and that kept the Huskies in front 74-73. The Stars tried to run down the clock, but Heights’ defense got a hold of the ball, and got a jump-ball call. Etchison soon made another pair of foul shots, and the Huskies’ defense took it from there. Etchison went 3-of-4 from the line in the final 13.8 seconds.
“We tried to work on that mental aspect and not allow adversity to affect us,” said Ballenger. “This is big for us tonight. We made some plays when we were really down and out there late. We controlled most of the game until late. Really proud of our guys for that effort.”
Heights led 16-11 after the first quarter, with Maddox Bohland pouring in nine points. Dawson got hot in the second quarter, draining three 3s to help keep the Huskies ahead 29-24. WeBo had a 20-point third quarter to go up 44-41, then held the lead for most of the fourth period until Heights began its comeback.
Dawson’s seven triples translated into 21 points, while Etchison scored 20. Bohland added 16 points and Irion scored 13.
“It’s good for our guys,” said Ballenger. “We’ve competed really hard. “We’ve been right there in so many games. This group’s just trying to win.”
Heights is 4-9 and plays at Noblesville on Saturday.