Fishers’ Carter Jones only played for four seconds in the Tigers’ boys basketball game at Avon Friday, but he made by far the biggest shot.
Jones nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift Fishers to a double-overtime Hoosier Crossroads Conference victory, 74-73 at the Orioles’ gym. The win keeps the Tigers, who are ranked No. 3 in the IBCA one-class poll and No. 5 in the Associated Press Class 4A rankings, unbeaten in conference play.
Fishers trailed Avon by two points with four seconds left. The Orioles had two free throws, but missed both of them, and Jeffrey Simmons got the rebound. Simmons threw the ball to Jones, who backed up, took one dribble, then made the winning basket.
That was actually the second buzzer-beating basket of the game for Fishers. With seconds left to go in the first overtime, Aidan Zimmer brought the ball down the floor, reverse pivoted and then connected on a 3-pointer to send the game into the second extra period.
Tigers coach Garrett Winegar said the game was about having different players step up and “most importantly, to never quit.”
“Super proud of our guys for that and I thought they showed a ton of heart, a ton of resolve and that’s what we talk about all the time,” said Winegar. “We talk about being relentless, never quitting and they did that tonight.”
Fishers led 18-10 after the first quarter, but the Orioles began to chip away at the lead, cutting the Tigers’ advantage to 28-25 by halftime. Avon then took the lead in the third, and was ahead 45-40 going into the fourth period. Fishers came back thanks to some big free throws from Jalen Haralson, he went 9 of 10 from the line during that quarter to help the Tigers things up.
Simmons led the scoring with 25 points; including nine points in both the first and third periods. Haralson added 24 points, while Charlie Smith contributed 10 points and Bryce Williams scored nine.
Fishers is 4-0 in HCC and 14-2 overall. The Tigers play another conference game next Friday at Franklin Central.
FISHERS 74, AVON 73
(double overtime)
Fishers FG FT TP PF
Myles Stringer 0 0-0 0 5
Jalen Harlason 6 12-15 24 5
Bryce Williams 3 2-4 9 4
Charlie Smith 3 4-6 10 3
Jeffrey Simmons 8 8-14 25 0
Sean Millsaps 0 0-0 0 2
Josh Forbes 0 0-0 0 0
Aidan Zimmer 1 0-0 3 5
Matt Brewer 0 0-1 0 1
JonAnthony Hall 0 0-0 0 0
Carter Jones 1 0-0 3 0
Totals 22 26-40 74 25
Score by Quarters
Fishers 18 10 12 15 9 10 – 74
Avon 10 15 20 10 9 9 – 73
Fishers 3-pointers (4) Zimmer 1, Jones 1, Williams 1, Simmons 1.