The Greene County boys Tuesday night reminded the Roland-Story Norsemen of an important fact in sports: it’s the final score that counts.
The Rams trailed the Norsemen in Story City almost the entire game and were down by nine points, 53-44, with less than four minutes left in the game. In those next minutes, Tyler Beger and Trey Tucker made field goals to shorten the gap to five at 53-48, the Norsemen made a free throw (54-48), Trey Hinote scored two and Mitchell Gorsuch made a 3-pointer, his only points for the game, to bring the score to 54-53. The Norsemen made another free throw (55-53), and with :33 seconds on the clock Tucker made two free throws to tie the game at 55. Tucker stole the ball from the Norsemen on their last possession and passed it to Anthony Cunningham, who was open for a shot. The shot missed, and regulation time ended at 55 all.
In overtime, R-S scored first on a free throw (56-55). Tucker scored two and R-S answered with a three pointer to take the lead (59-57). Wade Adcock made a field goal to tie the game at 59 with 1:20 to play. Thomas Jacobsen made his third 3-pointer of the game to go up 62-59 with 53 seconds to play and Beger made one of two free throws for a 63-59 score with 14 seconds to play. The Norsmen made a 3-pointer with 5.7 seconds to play, but Tucker drew a foul and made one of two free throws to put the Rams up 64-62 with 1.7 seconds to play. R-S turned the ball over on their possession after the free throw, and although the Rams turned the ball over when they got it, the buzzer sounded and the Rams had won the game.
The game started poorly for the Rams as they sorely missed their leading rebounder, Max Neese, who was unable to play due to an ankle injury sustained toward the end of last Friday’s game at Saydel. The Rams were down 14-5 by the end of the quarter as the Norsemen grabbed many offensive rebounds, allowing them second and third shots.
The Rams trailed by seven points (21-14) halfway through the second quarter and then scored nine unanswered points to hold a 23-21 lead with 2:30 left to play. The Norsemen scored the next seven points to go up 28-23 and the half ended 29-25 for the Norsemen.
The Rams still struggled on the boards in the third quarter and the Norsemen stayed ahead for a 43-37 lead at the end of the quarter.
The fourth quarter belonged to the Rams, though, led by Tucker’s 11 points.
Tucker finished the game with 29 points, 10 points ahead of his season average. Jacobsen scored 11, Hinote had 10, Beger had five, Adcock had four, Gorsuch had three and Reid Lamoureux scored two of the Rams’ first quarter points.
The Rams totaled nine 3-point shots in the game – three each for Tucker and Jacobson, two for Hinote and one for Gorsuch. The attempted 29 long buckets for 31 percent, which is their season average. The Rams were 34 percent from the floor and 75 percent (15 of 20) from the free throw line. They made 11 turnovers in the first half but finished the game with 18 total.
Roland-Story was 35 percent from the floor and 18 percent from 3-point range, well below their 33.4 percent season average. They were 17 of 25 from the free throw line (68 percent) and finished the game with 25 turnovers. Going into the fourth quarter, they had committed just 12 turnovers.
The Ram victory evened the teams on the season, as the Norsemen had won Jan. 8 in Jefferson 66-53.
The Rams are now 9-10 overall and 8-7 in the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference. They have one more game in the regular season, an HOIAC game against PCM in Jefferson Friday. The Rams are 7-3 in road games but only 2-7 on their home court.
Roland Story is now 11-9 overall and 7-8 in the HOIAC.
