Boys Basketball

Dublin Scioto 50, Independence 45 (OT)

Irish recover to fend off 76ers

Tuesday,  December 30, 2008 10:58 PM

By BRYAN DeARDO

ThisWeek Contributor

The Dublin Scioto High School boys basketball team held off host Independence 50-45 in overtime Tuesday. The Irish improved to 6-1 and the 76ers dropped to 2-4.

Scioto scored the game's first 13 points and led 38-31 after three quarters, Scioto trailed 40-38 with 29 seconds remaining. Bradley McDougal's two free throws forced overtime.

"This is a game that's great for the fans but a bad one for coaches," Scioto coach Tony Bisutti said. "Even when we fell behind, we felt like we were going to win the game, and that held true. We stressed not being tentative in the huddle and the guys did that and stepped up."

A 13-0 run in the second half gave Independence its first lead as Brandon Dawkins assisted DeAngelo Simms with 1:10 left in the fourth quarter.

"I give our guys a lot of credit for fighting back," Independence coach Tom Cripe said. "We preach to keep fighting for four quarters, and eventually we made a game out of it."

After the Irish missed two 3-pointers, McDougald was fouled on his layup attempt, leading to his tying free throws.

"We've practiced late-game situations and being behind many times in practice, so I felt relaxed and prepared when I stepped to the line," said, McDougald, who led Scioto with 14 points and 12 rebounds as his team held a 35-25 edge in rebounds. "Once we got into overtime, we told ourselves it was our game to win, and we did that by focusing on executing on both ends and finishing drives to the basket."

After it was tied at 42 in the overtime, Scioto scored eight points in a row.

"We did a good job rebounding down the stretch," Bisutti said. "We weren't doing that as well earlier, but we did it when we had to in the end."

David McKinley scored 12 points, including all three of Scioto's 3-pointers. For Independence, Tyler Brandon had 15 points and Dawkins added 11 points, six rebounds and three assists.