It was a good, old match-up of former South Central Ohio League teams as the Hurricane from Wilmington High School visited Miami Trace High School to take on the Panthers Tuesday night.
In a game that began with the two teams trading three-point field goals — the first nine buckets made by both teams were threes — the Panthers came away with a 55-50 win in overtime.
The game was tied 13 times and neither team was able to really distance itself from the other.
Wilmington’s biggest lead of the night was five points, early in the third quarter.
Miami Trace’s biggest lead was the final winning margin of five points.
The Panthers had three players in double figures and narrowly missed having a fourth.
Freshman Andrew Guthrie and junior Cameron Moore shared game high-scoring honors, each with 16 points.
Senior Kyler Conn scored 12 points and junior Logan Rodgers had nine points and led the game with 10 rebounds.
Guthrie also had four rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.
Conn was the game-leader in assists with five and led the Panthers with two steals.
Senior Cameron Coomer led the Hurricane (now 5-10 overall) with 15 points.
Junior Matthew Butcher scored 11 for the Hurricane and grabbed seven rebounds.
Junior Brandon Glass scored 11 points and senior Chris Custis scored 10 points and led Wilmington with eight rebounds and two steals.
“It was two good teams that competed really, really hard,” Miami Trace head coach Rob Pittser said. “Obviously, we were concerned with the two kids that score the bulk of their points.
“Both teams had to play some zone,” Pittser said. “We’re both fighting some illness and some injuries. It was one of those games where both teams were trying to make it ugly for the other and hard to execute. We had a lot of trouble executing through large portions of the game.
“When we got down in overtime, we were a little concerned how we would respond to that,” Pittser said. “We were super-proud of the kids to fight back. Kyler Conn was huge down the stretch, for sure; great senior leadership.”
Nine of the game’s 16 three-point field goals came to start the contest.
Rodgers hit the first two-point basket of the game near the end of the quarter, as Wilmington took a 15-14 lead.
The lead changed hands three times in the second quarter with the Panthers going off the floor with a 23-21 lead at the break.
The teams remained in close proximity to one another throughout the second half.
Wilmington had its biggest run on the game, 7-0, to start the third quarter.
The Panthers trailed by five points, 33-28 before going on an 8-0 run to take a 36-33 lead at the end of three quarters of play.
Though the game was tied five times in the fourth quarter, Miami Trace did not relinquish the lead.
Wilmington missed a shot to win the game late in regulation.
The Panthers had one shot before the horn sounded, but it, too, was no good, sending the game into overtime tied, 45-45.
Miami Trace junior Ethan Steele made two free throws to start the scoring in overtime.
Wilmington missed a shot, got the rebound and hit a three to take the lead, 48-47.
The Hurricane then twice went to the foul line and twice made one of two attempts to push the lead up to 50-47 with 1:32 to play in the four-minute extra period.
Moore sank a pair of free throws with 1:04 remaining.
Wilmington went back to the line with 48.7 seconds remaining, but missed both attempts.
Conn scored to give Miami Trace a 51-50 lead.
Conn was soon standing at the free throw line, draining two throws for a 53-50 count.
Wilmington missed a field goal attempt and Guthrie made two free throws for the 55-50 final.
Miami Trace (9-8 overall) will be back in action Friday at home to take on Hillsboro. The freshman game starts at 4:45 p.m. Miami Trace will recognize its seniors that night.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MT 14 9 13 9 10 — 55
W 15 6 12 12 5 — 50
MIAMI TRACE — Andrew Guthrie 6-4-16; Cameron Moore 1 (4)-2-16; Kyler Conn 2 (2)-2-12; Logan Rodgers 2 (1)-2-9; Ethan Steele 0-2-2; Dylan Bernard 0-0-0; Hayden Hunter 0-0-0; Keegan Terry 0-0-0; Bo Little 0-0-0. TOTALS — 11 (7)-12-55. Free throw shooting: 12 of 14 for 85 percent. Three-point field goals: Moore, 4; Conn, 2; Rodgers. Field goal shooting: 18 of 45 for 40 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 7 of 21 for 33 percent. Rebounds: 29 (8 offensive). Assists: 15. Steals: 6. Blocks: 3. Turnovers: 14. Personal fouls: 12. Bench points: 25. Second chance points: 4. Points off turnovers: 8.
WILMINGTON — Cameron Coomer 3 (2)-3-15; Matthew Butcher 1 (3)-0-11; Brandon Glass 0 (3)-2-11; Chris Custis 3 (1)-1-10; Collin Barker 1-1-3; Brady Vilvens 0-0-0; Luke Blessing 0-0-0; Gabriel Jones 0-0-0. TOTALS — 8 (9)-7-50. Free throw shooting: 7 of 12 for 58 percent. Three-point field goals: Butcher, 3; Glass, 3; Coomer, 2; Custis. Field goal shooting: 17 of 50 for 34 percent. Three-point field goal shooting: 9 of 32 for 28 percent. Rebounds: 23 (8 offensive). Assists: 10. Steals: 7. Blocks: 0. Turnovers: 10. Personal fouls: 12. Bench points: 3. Second chance points: 9. Points off turnovers: 10.
