Last season, Sheridan played two overtime games and won both of them.
The Blackhawks hadn’t gone to OT yet this season, but did Saturday night at Hobbs Gymnasium against Western Boone. It took two extra periods, but Sheridan got it done, defeating the Stars 69-66.
After coming back from a seven-point deficit in the fourth, the ‘Hawks entered the first overtime tied with WeBo at 57-all. Both teams only managed two points in that first extra period, all from free throws in the final 40 seconds.
So at 59-all, it was on to the second OT. Sheridan slowly but surely built an eight-point lead, with senior Ange Gnamkey leading the way.
Gnamkey made two free throws to give the Blackhawks the lead for good. Sheridan then made a big defensive stop when Caleb Duke made a steal, then sent it to Gnamkey, who was fouled. The senior made two more foul shots.
Seconds later, Gnamkey’s layin made the score 65-59. Then it was 67-59: Drake Delph made a steal, sent the ball to Gnamkey, who saw Jack Waitt under the basket. Gnamkey passed it over to Waitt, who made the easy layin.
“Once we settled down and played as a team and knew that we could actually pull it off, we did pretty well,” said Gnamkey. “Just believe in ourselves that we could win this game and that’s what happened.”
The Stars made one last furious push, but Sheridan was able to hold on thanks to a couple free throws and defensive toughness in the last few seconds.
“I told these guys in the locker room, just a minute ago there, that we’ve been in that situation before, where we’ve been in a tight game,” said ‘Hawks coach Chris Schrank. “We were down seven with four minutes to go. We’ve been there before and it would’ve been really easy for us to say, ‘Here we go again, we’ve seen this story play out.’ But they really dug in and fought back and gave us a chance, which is all you want.”
Gnamkey scored 23 points to lead Sheridan, with Waitt scoring 11. Nick Burnell earned a double-double, grabbing 13 rebounds to go with 10 points. Gnamkey had three blocks.
Sheridan is now 11-9 and travels to Bethesda Christian on Tuesday.
Sheridan 69, Western Boone 66
(double overtime)
Sheridan FG FT TP PF
Austin Hunter 2-6 3-4 8 4
Drake Delph 1-8 4-4 6 2
Caleb Duke 1-2 0-1 2 2
Ange Gnamkey 8-13 7-9 23 4
Nick Burnell 4-4 2-2 10 2
Jack Waitt 4-7 1-2 11 3
Sean Weitzel 2-2 0-3 5 0
Tanner Swindle 2-3 0-0 4 0
Jesse Kolb 0-2 0-0 0 0
Brody Perry 0-0 0-0 0 0
Totals 24-47 17-25 69 17
Score by Quarters
WeBo 16 11 21 9 2 7 – 66
Sheridan 15 17 13 12 2 10 – 69
Sheridan 3-point shooting (4-13) Waitt 2-5, Hunter 1-3, Weitzel 1-1, Delph 0-3, Swindle 0-1.
Sheridan rebounds (27) Burnell 13, Gnamkey 4, Waitt 3, Delph 3, Weitzel 2, Hunter 1, Kolb 1.
Sheridan’s Ange Gnamkey defends an inbound pass from Western Boone during the Blackhawks-Stars basketball game Saturday at Hobbs Gymnasium. Sheridan won in double overtime, 69-66. (Richie Hall)