Those who attended Wayland’s Parents Night boys’ varsity basketball game against Forest Hills Eastern got their money’s worth Friday night.
The Wildcats earned redemption not once, not twice, but three times in a thrilling 75-70 double overtime victory. The first was turning the tables on the Hawks, who bested Wayland 55-50 last month. The second was overcoming a horrible offensive start and falling behind 8-0 and 13-6 at the end of the first quarter to take a 23-18 advantage at intermission. The third and most important was bouncing back from allowing Forest Hills to come back to tie the ballgame at the end of regulation after being saddled with a 15-point deficit, 42-27, with just five minutes left.
All was forgiven in a verdict that left the two teams for third place in the O-K Gold Conference standings with 6-4 records. The ‘Cats now are 12-6 overall and Forest Hills now is 10-8.
Wayland could not penetrate the Hawks’ zone defense and was missing its three-point attempts. Senior center Cory Ainsworth broke a scoring drought in the first four minutes with a couple of free throws and senior guard Ternor Hudson swished a three right after that.
Meanwhile, Forest Hills was getting the ball to the hoop quickly with fast break layups and Taylor Mitchell was finding the range from three-point land. But midway in the second quarter senior point guard Carson Sevigny scored five straight unanswered points , senior forward George Yanakiev nailed a couple of free throws and Hudson banged home another three to turn around an 18-11 deficit.
Hudson and Ainsworth continued to put up a lot of points, the former outside and the latter inside, so the Wildcats were able to pull away gradually in the third period and started the final eight minutes with a nice 37-25 cushion.
But the ‘Cats were found guilty of coughing up the basketball on in-bounds passes and other turnovers and Forest Hills frantically but successfully was making threes. Mitchell swished a really deep three to bring his team to within two points, 51-49 with just a minute and a half showing on the scoreboard.
Solomon White then seemed to take things into his own hands by driving to the hoop and picking up fouls. Gage Kreuger and Nichola Stoll hit a charity tosses to pull the Hawks even, and Ainsworth scored on a clutch layup with 9.1 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 55-53 lead.
Coach Jason Yelding called time and set up up a play for White to drive the basket for a layup that sent the contest into overtime. He then put the visitors up by two in the first minute of the extra session, but Hudson, playing probably his finest varsity game as a Wildcat, answered with a three.
Clutch free throw shooting by Justin Holtz enabled Wayland to take a 63-61 lead with 22 seconds left, but it was White to the rescue again with a layup to force the second OT.
Ainsworth hit a pair of free throws and Jack Donewald scored on a tip-in and then went coast-to-coast for a layup to stake the home team to a five-point advantage, 69-64. Then Sevigny stepped in to hit three clutch free throws down the stretch to heal seal a difficult, but satisfying victory.
Ainsworth topped all individual scorers for the night with 25 points and Hudson counted 22. Donewald finshed with nine and Sevigny eight.
Mitchell and Krueger both had 19 for Eastern and White 16.
South Christian continues to stand atop the Gold standings and GR Christian is in second, It seems about the only question is about who will take third in the tight battle between the combatants Friday evening.
It was Parents Night at the Wayland gym, and the last time for seniors to play on the local floor.
(Photos courtesy of Josh Cline)