John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
FORT MADISON - Ryan Wilson knew just how much Fort Madison’s 56-53 overtime win over Burlington on Friday night meant, and he went down the list of its significance.
“Oh, it’s huge,” the Bloodhounds’ coach said. “It’s conference, it’s end of January. We’re still competing to win a conference championship — our guys know that. They’re not always going to be pretty, but we’ll take wins when we can, especially at home.
Fort Madison (7-5 overall, 5-2 Southeast Conference) stayed one game behind Mount Pleasant in the conference standings on a night of one big up, one big down, and then fighting through to the finish.
The Bloodhounds swept the season series from the Grayhounds (2-10, 2-5) for the first time since Burlington joined the conference.
“This means a lot,” said junior guard Julian Dear, whose three free throws in the final 17 seconds provided the final margin. “This is the first time we’ve beaten Burlington twice in a year in a long time.”
Fort Madison opened the game with a 23-6 run, then surrendered a 23-6 run.
“They sped us up when they went on that run,” Wilson said. “Sped us up, forced some turnovers. Early on, we were playing defense, we were getting stops, we were able to run. As we talked at halftime, there are going to be opportunities to run (in the second half), but you can’t force them. Take them when we have them. I think we went eight, 10 possessions without scoring. They sped us up, and we were out of control there.”
Fort Madison fought back to build a 40-31 lead, but Burlington had another rally left, and when Shaye Stringer hit a 3-pointer with 49 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Grayhounds led 48-46.
But Fort Madison was able to force overtime with two free throws from Hunter Cresswell with 34 seconds left, then scored the first five points of overtime. The Grayhounds got to within 53-50, then had a chance to cut more from the lead with 26 seconds left, but Xzayvion Baker missed two free throws. Dear hit two free throws with 17 seconds left, then the second of two free throws with four seconds left.
“Definitely big free throws,” Dear said. “I practice free throws all of the time, and I knew I wanted the ball in that situation to take them.”
Burlington had one last chance to tie the game, but Christos Kantzavelos missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“That’s just composure,” Wilson said of how the Bloodhounds played in overtime. “Obviously we blew a big lead from early in the game. But we kept fighting, made some big plays. That’s just composure and playing through adversity. Hunter makes big free throws, Julian makes big free throws. That’s just composure.”
Dear led the Bloodhounds with 14 points. Cresswell had 10 points.
Fort Madison hasn’t lost a game since coming back from the Christmas break.
“This team’s come a long way,” Dear said. “I think our heads are in a better place in the new year.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here