GREENFIELD — It was a game like no other.
Two of Hancock County’s conference rivals gave an unparalleled performance in a quadruple-overtime classic on Friday night.
The Mt. Vernon Marauders defeated the Greenfield-Central Cougars 96-91 after not one, not two, not three, but four overtimes that had the Cougars’ home gym roaring.
Although there were some miraculous plays throughout, the game’s finale came down to who blinked first.
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And it was Greenfield-Central.
Marauders coach Travis Daugherty described the game as “insane.” Cougars coach Lukas Haworth used the word “heart.”
In the final four minutes, the 88-88 impasse that ended the third overtime turned into a 91-88 lead for Mt. Vernon, spearheaded by none other than the Marauders’ star-for-the-night Logan Smith.
Smith ended the night with 34 points for a season-high. The guard scored 15 of Mt. Vernon’s 25 crucial overtime points.
In the final overtime quarter, Smith buried a key layup with the game still in question, then he got fouled and dropped in one of his two free throws. Cougars’ Brian Long made one of his freebees, which prompted Daugherty to take a timeout.
Later, the Cougars blinked when Brandon Bell collected a wide-open pass for a layup. The Cougars blinked again when they fouled Marauders’ Keith Rupert, who made his two free throws for a 95-91 Mt. Vernon lead with 21 seconds left. Greenfield-Central’s missed shots and another Marauders’ free throw brought the crazy game to a close.
A few key moments leading to overtime included Greenfield-Central closing a 10-point deficit between the end of the second quarter and the start of the third quarter. From there, it was a race to the finish.
The Marauders looked like they had it in the bag with a 67-61 advantage with just under two minutes left, but the Cougars had other plans.
Will O’Connor had a few of the key moments for the Cougars. He made a big 3-pointer with 36 seconds to go to bring the game within reach for Greenfield-Central. He followed up by sinking the game-tying shot with a deep 3-pointer to send the contest to overtime.
Smith led the charge with all of the team’s overtime points in the first and second bonus periods until Keith Rupert tied the game to send the game to a third overtime with a buzzer-beating layup.
Marauders’ Cade Gentry had 15 points, Rupert had 11, and Damari Gatewood had 10. For the Cougars, O’Connor ended with 31 points, Matt Turner had 19, and Brian Long had 18.
The 7-4 Marauders got their first Hoosier Heritage Conference win, moving to 1-3. The 4-7 Cougars move to 1-2 in the conference.
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Mt. Vernon 96, Greenfield-Central 91
MV;24;16;12;19;5;9;3;8;–;96
GC;19;15;16;21;5;9;3;3;–;91
MT. VERNON (7-4, 1-3): Smith 11 7-10 34, Gentry 4 4-7 15, Rupert 3 3-3 11, Gatewood 4 1-1 10, Kilburn-Smith 3 0-0 7, Bostic 2 0-0 5, J. Morris 1 0-0 3, Miles 1 0-0 2. Totals 29 15-21 96.
GREENFIELD-CENTRAL (4-7, 1-2): O’Connor 11 5-7 31, Turner 6 5-6 19, Long 3 11-14 18, B. Mundell 3 3-4 8, Graddy 2 2-4 7, C. Mundell 2 0-0 4, Cochran 1 0-0 3, Lester 0 2-2 2. Totals 28, 28-37, 91.
3-pointers: MV 10 (Gentry 2, Rupert 2, Smith 2, Bell, Bostic, Gatewood, J. Morris) GC 10 (O’Connor 4, B. Mundell 2, Turner 2, Cochran, Graddy). Rebounds: MV 23 (Meadors 6, Gatewood 4, Smith 4, Gentry 3, J. Morris 3, Bell, Kilburn-Smith, Rupert), GC 29 (Long 9, Graddy 7, Turner 7, O’Connor 4, B. Mundell, C. Mundell).
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