Jan. 27, 2009

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BD Fans Treated To Triple Overtime Thriller

By Marty Israel (1/27/09)

It has been said that there is no such thing as a moral victory.

But for the Beaver Dam Diamondbacks, who came oh so close to pulling out a win against the Williams Vikings on Friday night in a triple overtime masterpiece, it can be said that theirs was a proud loss.

The Vikings came away with a narrow victory in the Beaver Dam gymnasium, but they were not the team with the most hustle.

They were not the team that worked the hardest and they were hardly the grittiest team on the court.

Those accolades belong to the D-backs.

And while this one slips officially into the loss column, it was not a loss that leaves a bad taste, as the D-Backs can walk away from the game knowing that they left everything on the court and came within a cat’s whisker of defeating a team that seemed well on its way to a lopsided victory in quarter number three.

After 44 minutes of grueling up and down action, the score board revealed a three point victory for the Williams Vikings, 49-46.

Williams would get those three points from the foul line late in the third overtime when the D-Backs were forced into desperate measures.

Prior to the game, Beaver Dam head coach Vaughn Jenkins said of the evening’s foe that they were “a very well coached team. They move the ball really well and we are going to have our hands full.”

Jenkins then took a look around at a late arriving crowd that was nearly filling the bleachers and added, “At least we have the home court. That should help.”

Those fans would play a pivotal role in the game, but they would wait until the fourth quarter to have their voices heard.

Scoring started slowly for both teams as the first field goal was not registered until nearly three minutes of game time had elapsed.

The lead would change hands seven times in the first half until late in the second, Williams crept out to a five point lead.

Jenkins’ pre-game analysis of the Vikings was dead on as the boys from Williams began to display an ability to move the ball around the key with the experience of a team far beyond their tender age.

It was this ball movement that would eventually be the undoing of the Diamondbacks.

That, and a third quarter scoring slump for the home team.

Beaver Dam was held to just six points in the entire third quarter, along the way going a full five minutes without a field goal.

By the end of the third, Williams had taken an 11 point lead and seemed well on their way to an easy victory.

But the fourth quarter is made for heroes, and for the D-Backs, several players stepped up to fill that role.

Coming into the game, Coach Jenkins rattled off a list of players that were working through a myriad of injuries.

Jose Sanchez was nursing a sprained ankle, as was Cory Lemieux.

Stuart Elmer was said to have a bad back and he would not see action until late in the second half.

If his back was hurting, no one in that arena would be the wiser.

Elmer came up huge in the overtime period, boxing out, playing a physical brand of ball that is not normally his style.

Elmer recorded a couple of big rebounds in the O.T. and laid one back in for a huge field goal that sent the game into a third extra session.

During the game, Hector Castro sprained his ankle, forcing Raul Mercado to play a significant number of minutes.

Mercado’s quick first step and speed driving the lane were a big plus for the team down the stretch and he too displayed a toughness on the boards that had fans jumping out of their seats.

In the end, every player on that pre-game injury list saw playing time, and every one of them deserved the appreciation they received from the fans.

While the D-Backs may not have come away with the “W”, fans showed their appreciation for a game that was a treasure to watch as they stood and applauded their boys’ efforts for several minutes after the final buzzer.

The fans had just watched a game for the ages, and as Jenkins said (after a few moments in which he needed to catch his breath), “This one could have gone either way”.

The boys bounced back in a big way on Saturday as they defeated Northland Prep by a score of 93-40.

Unfortunately, for the girls, the weekend brought a pair of losses as they fell on Friday night to a towering Williams team 62-13 and then dropped the Saturday game to Northland Prep 42-32.