By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Moments after an electrifying 80-73 overtime win, with most of the gymnasium lights already shut off and a leaf blower clearing off the bleachers, Golden City coach Michael Reeves finally exhaled.
“That’s not how we drew it up, but it made it fun for the fans,” he said.
And the play of the game – responsible for even getting the Class 1 No. 10 Eagles to overtime – was unscripted, too.
With four seconds left and visiting Marionville leading 67-65, senior Lane Dunlap took an inbounds pass from classmate Chain Parrill and quickly worked his way around the right side of the court, past a pair of defenders, and lofted up an underhanded layup from several feet out as the buzzer sounded.
“To be honest with you Lane went rogue,” Reeves said. “I drew up a completely different play where he should have been curling but Lane’s just a freaking player. He made the read that they weren’t going to be there so he ran out there and then Lane’s just Lane. He’s going to score 2,000 points for his career for a reason, because he’s a player.”
“The way we drew it up initially I was supposed to go on the left side but they switched so you just have to adjust and get to a shot you’re comfortable with and I know I can finish around the basket,” Dunlap said.
The game-tying bucket made, an emotional Dunlap turned his focus to the Marionville fans on the other end of the court.
Visiting spectators and players were “yapping” at him quite a bit Reeves said, and “Lane takes that personal. He’s a different kid so when he gets it in his head that he wants to go it’s very hard to stop him with his body size and his finishing tough.”
Dunlap scored 15-straight points during the fourth quarter and overtime and was 7-for-8 at the free throw line in the extra period to help seal it.
He put Golden City ahead 71-67 with a pair of driving layups, kept it a four-point game with free throws at the 1:37 mark and made it 75-72 with two more with 43 seconds remaining – even with an inadvertent buzzer during one of the shots.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
His only miss came at the 22-second mark when he made it 76-72, and seven seconds later he added two more to make it a five-point game.
He finished with 27 points – 19 of them in the second half.
“We just stuck with it,” he said. “We kept working hard. There were a lot of fouls but you can’t play to get fouled so you just have to keep busting and playing so that’s what we did.”
He said he fed off the opposing fans and what was a charged atmosphere the last several minutes.
“I love playing with a home crowd and then an away crowd just bringing energy,” he said. “I can’t get mad at them for yelling, whatever they say, they’re just trying to support their team. It’s just fun.”
The first quarter was all Marionville on Tuesday. The Comets jumped out to a 23-9 lead and still led by 10 points with 6:10 left in the first half. They went to the locker room with at the half never having trailed and with a 38-34 advantage.
The second half was a different story, with 10 lead changes. Golden City led by as many as six in the third quarter and by as many as five in the fourth but Marionville tied it at 63 on two free throws by sophomore Wil Carlton with 2:05 remaining. He put them ahead with two more a minute later, but Dunlap tied the game at 65 with 36 seconds on the clock. Marionville senior Jordan Williams scored with seven seconds to go.
“We had a game last night at Spokane, we didn’t play very well – Spokane’s a good team and we lost to them – but we ended the fourth quarter the way we were supposed to play and I just told the kids to come in with the same intensity you had at the end of the game last night and we’ll be alright,” Comets coach Rob Guerin said.
“Overtime, they got it to their best player and he got to the basket and was able to score,” Guerin said. “We were trying not to foul, we had some people in foul trouble so we were trying not to foul and stop him at the same time. We weren’t very successful at it.”
Golden City improved to 9-3 with the win; Marionville fell to 8-4.
“Right now we’ve been thinking we can show up to games because we made the Final Four last year and teams will just bow down to us,” Reeves said. “Last game we just played Lakeland which is ranked number one in Class 2. We came out acting like we were cool, finally we got down, got tough. Same thing this game. We acted like we could just win coming out here. We gritted our teeth, finally played defense and 32’s just a dog. Lane got (angry) and he just took over.”
Carlton led all scorers with 32 points and was one of seven players in double figures in the game. Marionville’s Williams scored 24 and junior Lake High added 15.
The Eagles were led by Dunlap’s 27. Sophomore Josh Reeves added 24 points and made six three pointers. Senior Chain Parrill scored 16 and junior Max Parrill tallied 13.
The teams combined for 21 three pointers.
