The game was tied at the half and tied at the end, so it’s only appropriate that it took a shot with less than a second on the clock to finally decide Friday night’s basketball game between Carthage and Frontenac.
The Tigers’ Tucker Downing finished off a wild, 20-second flourish that saw both teams score what could have been game winners.
Frontenac scored with 7 seconds left in the game to go up 69-68 when Taris Jackson took the inbounds pass and threw the ball upcourt to Downing.
Downing then drove, and with less than a second left, put up a shot from the right side of the basket that kissed the heel of the rim and went in as the red lights framed the backboard, signaling game over.
Those last two of Downing’s 16 points on the night gave the Tigers the 70-69 win over the Raiders and put Carthage at 3-1 on the season.
“This is something we can build on,” said Tigers Head Coach Steve Ray. “I’m really proud of the team, there were a lot of things going against us and so we were able to figure it out.”
Jackson, Morgan Frisinger and Silas Templeman kicked off that 20 seconds of craziness. With the Tigers trailing 67-63, Jackson hits a three pointer to pull to within one point of Frontenac, 67-66, with 21 seconds left.
Then Frisinger tips the Frontenac inbound pass and Templeman grabbed the ball and scored his only two points of the game on a short jumper from the left side of the rim to put the Tigers up, 68-67, setting up that final series.
The game could have ended at regulation, but Frontenac missed two free throws with 6.2 seconds on the clock. A last-second heave by Carthage missed and a back-and-forth game ended with the teams tied at 59.
These teams were very evenly match. Neither team could pull away from the other — the largest lead in the game was four points, held a few times by both teams.
Carthage had to come back from four points down twice in the overtime period, down 65-61 and 67-63 before the final rush.
“This could be really good for us,” Ray said. “We’re a young team, we only have one senior and we just haven’t been able to play a lot of games like that. So I think the more experience we can get, the better.”
Alex Martini led the Tigers with 19 points, including a jam that started the tame.
Martini scored 14 of his points in the first half. Downing took over in the second half and overtime, scoring 11 of his 16 in the final three frames.
Jackson chipped in with 11 points and Huntley scored five points.
