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When a #2 takes on a #3 you expect a close game. But when #3 Barneveld traveled to #2 Rio Saturday night for a Division 5 boys basketball regional championship match-up they took it a step further - they went into overtime.
Unfortunatley for the visiting Golden Eagles it ended up in Rio's favor 60-56, but there were several key and exciting moments.
It was 6'4" senior Nathan Rippl for Rio who provided much of it. He scored a game-high 29 points, but his eight in the extra period was big.
Viking Brandon Rowe made all four of his free throws in overtime and finshed with 16 points.
Also Rio's Pierson Schneider hit a three in the extra period at a key time.
Barneveld's Seth Sullivan put in a bucket as time expired in the first half to knot things at 22 going into intermission.
Eagle senior Dayne Evans, who scored 20 points on the night, nailed a trio of three pointers in the first half.
Another Barneveld senior, Malcolm Reed had three baskets in the first half. His first one put him over the 1000 point mark. He finished the night with 18 points with seven coiming in the OT.
It looked like Rio had things wrapped up in regulation when they were leading 45-40 with :32.5 second left - but then everything went Barneveld's way.
Evans was fouled two seconds later and made two free throws for a 45-42 score.
The Eagles fouled and Rio's Carson Richardson missed the front end of a bonus toss.
After a missed Eagle shot, junior Jack Thompson tipped the ball back out and Evans nailed a three to tie with nine seconds left.
Then the Eagle defense stiffened and didn't allow the Vikings to get a final shot off before the regulastion time ended.
Rippl made the initial bucket of the overtime period for Rio.
Evans countered with two free throws to tie at 47.
Rio sophomore Pierson Schneider hit a three for a 50-47 lead at 2:05.
Barneveld wouldn't go away as Reed made a basket plus a free throw to tie it again at 50.
Another Rippl bucket from the left block put Rio up 52-50 with 1:15 to play.
Another Reed two pointer knotted things again at 52 at the 1:06 mark.
Rippl put the Vikings up again 54-52 with 54 ticks left and then a real key moment happened when he came up with a steal at the other end. That forced the Eagles to foul and Rowe made both tossed for a 56-52 lead with 40 secods remainig.
Reed hit a jumper tocut it to 56-54 at the :30 mark, but again Rippl hit a bucket for a 58-54 lead with 20 seconds remaining.
A rare miss by Barneveld forced another foul and Rio's Rowe made both free throws for a 60-54 lead with :07.7 left.
The Eagles got a tip-in bucket before the final buzzer to make the final 60-56.
Rio coach TimSDtruck said following the game, "Defending Reed and Evans was especially key and even though the senior duo combined to score 38 poits, nothing came easy for them."
Barneveld coach Tyler Sullivan said, "These are the games that are always tough to swallow. Rio is a really good team, but with the effort we gave I really thought we deserved to win the game. Unfortunately for us we struggled at times finding ways to score, and credit them as their defensive strength and game plan to crowd the paint was effective."
He added, I felt we did a great job containing their runs, as we fought back and got a big bucket from Seth to end the half to tie it, and then down the stretch in regulation we got a big jumper from Trey, and one from Spencer, and then the tip from Jack to Malcolm who then hit Dayne for the 3 to tie it were all huge sequences for us."
"I felt we had lots of momentum going into overtime but they just made a few more plays when it mattered the most," he pointed out. "As a fan, it was probably a great game to watch, but frustrating for our team as our guys worked their tails off to try to get one more game."
"I am really proud of what our team accomplished this year, and sad to see this group of seniors go. I hope Alex, Ethan, Trey, Dayne and Malcolm all know how much they have meant to this program, and will really miss the opportunity to keep coaching them!"
Sullivan also said, "Freshman Chase Ignatius came in and made some huge plays for us off the bench andfFinished with seven points."
"I also wanted to congratulate Malcolm for surpassing 1000 points during this game. His 18 points put his career total at 1017 points," he concluded.
SCORE BY HALVES
B 22 23 11-56
R 22 23 15-60
BOX SCORE
BARNEVELD 56 (fg, ft, tp) Reed 8-2/4-18, Gordon 1-0-2, Thompson 1-0-2, Peterson 1-0-2, Seth Sullivan 1-0-2, Evans 6-4/4-20, Spencer Sullivan 1-1/1-3, Ignatius 2-3/3-7. Totals 21-10/12-56. F-17.3-pointers: Evans 4.
RIO 60: J. Rowe 3-2/2-9, Johnson 0-0/2-0, B. Rowe 4-6/6-16, Rippl 10-9/12-29, Bright 0-0-0, Schneider 2-0-6, Richardson 0-0/1-0. Totals 19-17/24-60. F-15. 3-pointers: B. Rowe 2, Schneider 2, J. Rowe 1.