Jennings County gained momentum late in the first half to take a comfortable lead Friday night, but Columbus East never gave up.
The Olympians were able to come back to force an overtime session, but the Panthers got off a good start offensively in the extra period and fended off another East comeback late to escape with a 67-65 Hoosier Hills Conference boys basketball victory.
“I thought in the overtime that we panicked a little bit as far as doing what we wanted to do. We just have to stay the course,” East coach Brent Chitty said. “I liked the way that our kids answered the physically of the game in the second half. I’m really proud of them for that. The first half, I thought rebounding hurt us a little bit, and in the second half, we missed too many free throws down the stretch.”
The Olympians (3-16, 0-5) got off to a 6-0 start in the first 90 seconds of the game, and a Pierce 3-pointer extended the lead to 10-2 midway through the first quarter. The Panthers (11-8, 2-4) started to gain their rhythm offensively but East still held a 13-10 lead after the first.
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Jennings tied the game early in the second quarter following a 3-point shot from Trey Wilson to make it 15-15. The teams then traded points with the Olympians on top 19-17, but then the Panthers went on a 12-2 run to lead 29-21, and they led 35-27 at the break.
Jennings led 40-32 midway through the third quarter, but then East went on a 7-0 run to make it 40-39 with 1:13 left in the period. A Jacob Vogel basket stopped the bleeding for the Panthers with around 55 seconds left to make it 42-39 heading into the fourth.
The Olympians cut it to 45-43 until a Keegan Manowitz triple from the top of the key pushed the lead up to 48-43 with 5:45 left in regulation. Jennings opened the door late by missing free throws late. Boyer made the most of the opportunity by draining a 3-pointer to tie the game at 55-55 to head into overtime.
The Panthers led 65-59 until a Jacob Pierce hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 65-62 with 11 seconds left in overtime. Manowitz hit two free throws with 8.3 seconds remaining, and then Tyler Boyer hit a 3-pointer with four seconds left for the final score.
“It’s always a tough place to play. Coach Chitty’s teams always play hard, and they did tonight,” Jennings coach Josh Land said. “We struggled to shoot the ball early, and I thought we did a good job not settling in the second quarter. We lost our edge there late in the game, but overall, a good win for us. We’ll take any HHC win we get, especially on the road against Columbus East.”
Boyer finished with a game-high 26 points, and Pierce added 16 for the Olympians.
“We’re getting closer every game, we’re making good improvements every day, but we just got to come out and play full-game,” Boyer said. “We’re getting closer and closer, but once we put it all together, we’ll be a scary team, but we just have to get there.”
Vogel finished with a team-high 23 points for the Panthers. Aaron Martin added 14 and Carson McNulty finished with 10.
