Bulldogs run out of chances

Scott falls in OT to Perkins

Perkins' Mitchell Benkey chases Scott's Bryson Collins, who led the Bulldogs with 17 points.

THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER
Buy This Image

Perkins' Mitchell Benkey chases Scott's Bryson Collins, who led the Bulldogs with 17 points.

BOWLING GREEN — Scott’s Chris Harris took aim, and then Chris Darrington did the same. With less than 20 seconds left in overtime, neither shot found what either player hoped would be the right spot. Instead, both 3-point attempts missed.

Scott's Chris Darrington protests a call as Perkins' Kyle Lewis picks himself up. Darrington had a final chance to tie the game in overtime but missed a 3-pointer.

Then, as the final seconds of overtime ticked down, Darrington went for one last shot from behind the arc in an attempt to tie the game. It fell well short, and Scott’s postseason ended Saturday at the Stroh Center with a 50-47 overtime loss to Sandusky Perkins in the Division II district championship game.

“The last 18 seconds, I still had hope,” said Scott’s Bryson Collins, who led his team with 17 points. “I’m a senior on the team, and I had to lead the team. When we went out there, I still had hope. I had hope for my teammates.”

But in the final seconds of the loss, Scott went back to its original overtime strategy — being aggressive.

Perkins erased Scott’s 47-46 lead with 1:29 left in overtime, and with his team down by three points, Scott coach Chris Dames called a pair of timeouts in the final 18 seconds, including its last timeout with five seconds left.

PHOTO GALLERY: Perkins eliminates Scott

“I told them ‘this is a one-possession game, and this was their center shooting free throws, who hasn’t shot free throws all game,’ ” Dames said. “So we’re in it. Let’s get a rebound and call a timeout. We did that. We executed that. We wanted to catch Harris off of a curl coming at the basket and loop Darrington around from the left side of the floor to the right corner.

“But for five seconds, you are pretty much rolling the dice.”

Perkins (21-5) took the same approach Scott (13-10) took in the extra session.

“We just wanted to stay aggressive, and when you’re aggressive, good things happen,” Perkins coach Scott McVeigh said. “We switched it up a little defensively, we went man, and we were switching everything on them. We kind of caught them off guard a little bit, but it was just buckling down and getting stops and executing on the offensive end.”

Trailing 7-6 after the first quarter, Scott utilized a 9-0 run early in the second en route to a 20-11 lead with 2:16 left in the half before Perkins closed the Bulldogs’ lead to 21-18 with a 7-1 run to end the half.

Darrington tied the game at 40 on a pair of free throws with 3:06 left in regulation but with 1:05 left, Harris fouled Nic Williams, which sent him to the line. Williams made both free throws to give the lead back to the Pirates but with 26.9 seconds left, Perkins’ Kyle Lewis fouled Collins, and he sank both free throws to tie the game at 42.

In the final seconds of regulation, Smith drove to the hoop but couldn’t complete his shot, which sent the game to overtime. In overtime, Perkins erased Scott’s 47-46 lead on Mitchell Benkey’s layup with 1:29 left, followed by Brandon Smith’s two free throws with 39 seconds left.

“This was an old-fashioned slug-fest, basically,” Dames said. “This wasn’t about anybody’s stars in this game. Both teams had excellent game plans, in how to shut the other teams’ guy down.”

Contact Rachel Lenzi at: rlenzi@theblade.com, 419-724-6510 or on Twitter @RLenziBlade.