The Ram boys basketball team ended a four game losing streak but it took two overtimes in Winterset Monday evening to put together a 78-72 non-conference victory.
The Rams started out cold – they didn’t score in the first five minutes of the game and Winterset held a 10 point lead. The best they did in regulation time was very brief ties at 34 points with less than a minute to play in the third quarter, at 41 points with about four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, and the last nine seconds of regulation time. The score was tied at 55 after senior Mitchell Gorsuch put up a 3-pointer and Winterset was unable to score in their last possession.
The Rams scored first in the first overtime and held onto the lead until Huskie Grant Williams drained a 3-pointer on the buzzer to tie the score at 63. In the second overtime, the Huskies scored first on a free throw, but the Rams answered quickly to tie the score and then take a lead with Trey Tucker, Trey Hinote, Reid Lamoureux and Mitchell Gorsuch all making it to the charity line. The Rams scored 15 points during that last four minute OT, while the Huskies put up nine, only three of which were from the charity line. Lead scorer Tucker had 39 points when he left the game with an ankle injury with 2:19 to play in the second OT.
The game was more exciting than pretty, as the Rams committed 21 turnovers, 16 of them in the first half, and the Huskies committed 18.
Tucker scored 15 points in the first half, including a pair of first quarter 3-pointers, but he was scoreless in the third quarter. He scored 17 points in the fourth quarter on six field goals and five of five free throw shooting. His final seven points came in the overtimes.
Reid Lamoureux scored 10 points and Gorsuch scored eight. Hinote’s per game average going into the game was 9.8 points, the second highest average among freshmen playing varsity basketball in Class 3A. He scored eight points against Winterset.
Wade Adcock scored six points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. Sico Boateng scored four, and Anthony Cunningham, a defensive specialist who made a critical steal in the second OT, scored his first basket in the second overtime for two points. Max Neese brought a 10.7 average into the game but scored only one point.
The big win followed a discouraging loss at home to North Polk last Friday. The Rams are now 2-5 overall while the Huskies are 0-7.
