High school basketball fans were treated to a high scoring barn-burner of a game when the Greene County Rams hosted the Raiders of Collins-Maxwell-Baxter in Jefferson Tuesday evening for Heart of Iowa Activities Conference hoops. With 181 total points in the boys game, after two overtimes the Rams held 93 of them for a 93-88 victory.
The Rams’ first seven points in the game were scored as free throws, and solid free throw shooting helped them throughout the game. The Rams were seven for seven at the charity line in the first quarter and 11 of 15 for the first half. The Rams were at the line only six times in the second half, but they made all six, finishing regulation time at 17 of 21, nearly 81 percent.
The Rams were successful in five of seven trips to the line in the first overtime and five of six in the second overtime. For the game, the Rams shot 79.4 percent at the line, their highest percentage for the season.
The Rams and the Raiders traded the lead the entire game. After about five minutes of play, the Rams were down 9-12 before Mitchell Gorsuch, Reid Lamoureux and Trey Tucker all made 3-point shots to go ahead 18-12. Score at the end of the first quarter was 18-14 in favor of the Rams.
The Rams took a 35-29 lead into the locker room for halftime, but as the second half began, the Raiders scored 12 points to the Rams’ two and the Rams trailed 37-41. The Rams tied the score 41-41 and went ahead on a Riah Nelsen free throw, but the Raiders answered with a basket and the Rams’ lead was short-lived. At the end of three quarters, the Raiders were up 54-50.
The Rams tied the score at 58 with 6:14 left to play in the fourth quarter, and the rest of regulation time was hard fought. The score was tied again at 60and at 62. The Rams built a four point lead with 3:29 left to play, but the Raiders scored a 3-pointer to stay in the game. With 1:13 to play the score was tied 71-71. The Raiders scored next, but Tucker answered with a two point shot on the buzzer to end the game in a 73-73 tie.
The Raiders scored first in the first overtime and the Rams played catch-up for the first 2:53 of play. With 1:07 left to play, the score was again tied at 79. Landon Braun had been the first Ram to score – a 3-pointer to tie the score at 76 – and he made a pair of free throws to put the Rams up 81-79. The Raiders got the last shot to tie the score at 81.
CMB scored first again in the second overtime; Lamoureux answered and the score was tied at 83. The Raiders scored a field goal and then made the second of two free throws to lead 86-83. Tucker had four fouls and didn’t play early in the second OT. Once he was on the floor again, he made a 3-pointer with 1:29 left to play tie the score at 86, and he put the Rams ahead with a field goal, 88-86. He drew fouls twice and made three of the four shots to put the score at 91-86. Lamoureux drew a foul and made both for the final Ram points. Nelsen was at the line for two shots in the second overtime but missed both. The Raiders scored the last bucket to put the score at 91-88.
Tucker scored 20 points in regulation, three in the first OT and eight in the second OT for a total of 30 points. He made three 3-point baskets. Braun scored only three points in the first three quarters of play, but put up nine points in the fourth quarter and five in the first OT for 17 total points, six of them on 3-point shots. Lamoureux scored 10 points in regulation and four in the second OT for 14 points total. Those three players accounted for all 20 of the Rams’ overtime points.
Gorsuch scored 15 points, well ahead of his game average. That included three 3-pointers. Nelsen scored nine points, Tyler Beger scored three – a 3-pointer in the first quarter – and Max Neese scored two.
The Rams made a total of nine 3-point shots – three each by Tucker and Gorsuch two by Braun,
The win puts coach Jeramie Hinote’s team at 6-4 in the HOIAC and 6-6 overall. The Raiders are now 4-7 in the conference and 5-8 overall.
