Whenever Notre Dame College and Slippery Rock get together on the basketball court it seems to go down to the wire. With nine minutes to go on Friday night and "The Rock" leading by 21 it didn't seem to be headed in that direction. The Falcons had other ideas and would could come all the way back, tie the game at the end of regulation, and come away with a 99-95 overtime win in the first game of the Butler County Chamber Of Commerce Conference Challenge at Morrow FieldHouse.
NDC Coach Mark Richmond was a proud coach:
" I was proud of how our team stuck together,"Richmond mentioned. We made a ton of mistakes but still found a way to win. We've talked all preseason about handling adversity and today we were able to do that. It was a total team effort, particularly the final nine minutes. That's who we have to be if we want to be successful this season."
Both teams came out shooting the ball well from the outset. After a 5-0 early lead for the Rock NDC went up 9-7 after a pair of Tyland Crawford 3-pointer's. Jaedon Willis knotted the game at 17 for the Falcons with a 3-ball at 13:54 mark of the opening half. The Rock went on a 7-0 run after the two teams traded baskets to take a 26-19 advantage. Tyler Frederick hit a 3-pointer for Slippery Rock and they led 39-28 with 5:34 in the half, before NDC went on a 7-0 run capped by a Willis three-point play to make the score 39-35 with 4:32 in the opening stanza. After trimming the lead to three a couple times it would be Slippery Rock who would stretch the lead to double digits but the Falcons would gain some momentum heading into the locker room as DeAirius Barker hit a jumper to cut the lead to 10 (54-44) at halftime.
Willis had 14, and Crawford 11 to lead NDC in the first half. For the Rock it was Frankie Hughes and Tyler Fredrick who led the way in the first stanza. NDC shot 50 percent from both the field and 3-point line, while Slippery Rock shot 59 percent from the field and 57 percent from the 3-point line in the first half. Slippery Rock led the rebounding battle by six.
NDC would claw to within six before the Rock stretched the lead back to double figures. The lead would grow to 16 (70-54) with 14:10 remaining. The Rock would have the largest lead of the game (80-59) with 9:17 to go. The two teams would trade buckets before NDC would be on the comeback trail. A pair of three point possessions, a old fashioned three-point play by Sampson, and a 3-pointer by Godinez made it 82-67. It was 84-67 when the Falcons would turn up the full-court pressure. Godinez would spark a 12-0 run that made it 84-79 after a Barker layup at the 3:09 mark. The Rock would stop the uprising briefly with a pair of Hughes free throws at stretch the lead to seven at the 2:31 mark of regulation. A Sampson layup and then a Willis 3-pointer would trim the lead to two (86-84) with 1:22 on the clock. After a Slippery Rock turnover Godinez made a layup to tie the game at 86. He talked about that play:
" Coming into that play I knew I was going to drive right hard because the last couple of possessions when we ran the same play I was open, I had to come in aggressive but read the defenders on what they were going to do but nobody helped so I took it all the way,"Godinez explained.
The Rock had a chance with the ball at the end of regulation but could not convert on offense as the game headed into overtime.
The overtime began similar to the beginning of the game as Hughes would hit a 3-pointer that was countered by a 3-ball of his own by Crawford. The two teams traded free throws before the Rock went up by three (94-91) after a Lashon Lindsey 3-pointer. Mike Sampson would then come up big for NDC as he would score off of a offensive board and then get a steal to give the Falcons the teams first lead of the game with 1:39 to go.
Sampson talked about how he just wants to help his team win:
" I just knew we needed big plays down the stretch. I want to be a big playmaker for this team. Whether that's a steal, assist, bucket, or a rebound."Sampson said.
After Johnathan McFall spilt a pair of free throws for the Rock NDC would get what proved to be the game winning jumper by with 42 seconds to go. NDC would get a stop then miss the front end of a one and one, Sampson would get the offensive rebound and hit two free throws to ice it.
Sampson talked about the game sealer:
"Once I saw the miss I just went after it and wanted to ice the game. "
NDC had six players score in double figures paced by Willis with 21, Sampson tallied 17 and 10 rebounds, Crawford scored 16, Mike Kirkland came off the bench with 14, Godinez notched 13, and Barker contributed 12. As a team NDC shot 49 percent from the field and 48 percent (11-23) from the 3-point line. They also shot at a 80 percent clip (16-20) at the free throw line. NDC had 21 assists and 11 turnovers in the contest.
Frankie Hughes led the Rock with 27, Frederick scored 15 and grabbed 10 rebounds, McFall and Lindsey each had 13, while Bobby Clifford scored 12. The Rock shot 47 percent from the field and 40 percent (12-30) from the 3-point line. They shot at a 65 percent clip (13-20) at the free throw line. The Rock won the rebounding battle 45-39. The Rock shot 39 percent from the field and 20 percent from the 3-point line (2-10) in the second half.
Crawford talked about that being the difference, along with rebounding which was even in the second half, as well as NDC's execution on offense:
" We just needed to stay poised on the offensive end, drive and find the open guy, and that's what we did. Jaedon and John made tough shots down the stretch that kept us going but defensively is where we won the game. Securing key rebounds and getting stops down the stretch helped us win the game, "Crawford said.
NDC will have a quick turnaround as they will battle Seton Hill tomorrow at 5 PM.
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