Jr. Panthers get comeback win in overtime over Jr. Warriors
Looking to remain unbeaten, the Ouachita Jr. Warriors had their perfect record taken away by the Magnet Cove Jr. Panthers in a comeback, overtime thriller Thursday at the Magnet Cove Arena.
The Warriors had taken a 11 point lead going into the fourth, but were outscored 21-10 by the Panthers to force overtime. In the overtime period, the Panthers were able to edge the Warriors 8-6 to get the win 53-51.
In the first quarter, the Warriors took the early lead by outscoring the Panthers 11-6. The two teams remained close with the Warriors leading 5-4 at the 3:11 mark. The Warriors then wen on a 4-2 run to finish the quarter with a five point lead.
In the second quarter, the Warriors continued to lead, taking a nine point, 15-6 lead at 3:06 mark. Magnet Cove’s Bo Batchelor broke the Warriors run and Carter Vonn came back with another score after a steal to put the Panthers down 15-10. With 28 seconds left though, Ouachita’s Kaiden Bahr knocked down a 3-pointer to boost the
Warriors to an eight point, 1810, lead at the half.
The Warriors looked like they would pull away in the third after outscoring the Panthers 17-14 to take a 3524 lead. Scoring for the Warriors in the third quarter was Cameron Mattingly, Colton Braswell, Bahr, Caden Lee, Trey Cox, and Noah Waters. Scoring for the Panthers was Batchelor and Cade Davis.
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Warriors took a 13 point, 37-24, lead after Cox hit a shot at the 4:43 mark. From there, the Panthers got hot and went on a 12-2 point run to trail 39-36 at the 3:12 mark. After trailing by five points after Cox made a basket at the 2:14 mark, the Panthers were able to rally to tie the game, 41-41 at the 1:38 mark after Batchelor hit the tying shot. The Warriors once again took the lead with Cox hitting a basket but Davis was able to tie again after making two free throws at the 45 second mark. With 37 seconds left, the Warriors took the lead yet again but it was the Panthers who came back to tie with under 20 seconds remaining. Tied at 45-45, the
game went into overtime.
Scoring went back and forth in overtime. The Warriors took the first lead but the Panthers came back to tie. The Panthers then took the lead and the Warriors came back to tie. At the one minute mark, the game was tied at 51-51. With just over 30 seconds remaining, Davis hit the game winning basket to give the win to the Panthers.
The leading scorer for the Panthers was Batchelor with 27 points. After him was Davis and Vonn with 10 points apiece. For the Warriors Bahr was the leading scorer with 12 points. Cox added 11 points for the Warriors and Mattingly added 10 points.