In most high school basketball games, it takes 32 minutes to find a winner, but on Wednesday night at the Owensboro Sportscenter, it took a lot longer than that.
It didn’t take 32 minutes, 36 minutes or even 40 minutes to determine a victor, as Evansville Bosse needed triple overtime to take down Owensboro Catholic 82-80 to extend their perfect start to the season to 14-0.
With 3.5 left on the clock in the third overtime and the game tied 80-80 after Catholic’s Luke Scales buries two free throws, Bosse’s Matthew Wagner took the inbound the length of the court and put up a floater that he banked in to give the Bulldogs the victory as they stormed the court at the Sportscenter.
Despite the loss, Aces coach Tim Riley was positive after the game as his team gave it everything they had.
“Kids played their hearts out,” he said. “That’s the No. 2 team in 3A in the state of Indiana. It’s a hell of an undefeated team. That makes them 14-0. I’m really proud of our kids’ effort.”
The matchup was tied 59-59 at the end of regulation, and each team had their fair share of the lead in regulation and in the three overtime periods. Both teams looked like they had the game in hand at times, but the basketball Gods decided those lucky enough to attend Wednesday’s matchup went home with a game they’d never forget.
“It was just a great high school basketball game,” Riley said. “It’s one of the best regular-season games I’ve ever been involved in. You just build on this. I’m disappointed we lost because you’d love to win that game and the joy of winning the game. … We’ve got a good basketball team and we need to build off of this.
“This year, you never know what’s going to happen with COVID, everything. It was just a great night to have. Something they’ll be talking about for a lot of years.”
Catholic outscored Bosse in every quarter during regulation except the third, when the Bulldogs came out firing after trailing 29-19 at the break.
Wagner scored 12 of his 26 points in the frame as he buried four 3-pointers while Julian Norris scored 10 of his team-high 29 points in the frame.
“They made some big shots in the second half,” Riley said of the Bulldogs. “They didn’t make shots in the first half. Second half, they made a bunch of big shots.”
For Catholic, it was the Ji Webb and Brian Griffith show.
The junior duo combined for 57 points as Webb finished with a game-high 34 while Griffith added 23 in the loss.
Riley said Webb was a dominant force in the game and when asked how he fit into the Aces gameplan, Riley didn’t hesitate.
“He always is,” he said. “He’s just a special guy when he wants to be. When he brings his A-game, he’s a special player.”
Griffith started the game cold as he had just two points in the first frame but like HE usually does, he heated up as the game went on.
“They put a lot of effort into Griff early then they put a lot of effort into Ji late,” Riley said. “Early they were all about Griff, they doubled Griff every chance they got.”
Coming into the game, Riley knew what the Bulldogs were going to try to do and for the first two quarters. The Aces were able to counter that by slowing down Bosse, which gave them an advantage going into the break.
He said if you let the Bulldogs run, they’re a tough team to stop.
“You got to make them play at a different pace,” he said. “They live off of transition, they live off getting the thing out and going. You’ve got to make them play a halfcourt basketball game, which is hard. You can’t turn the ball over, which I don’t think we were bad about that tonight. You got to keep the ball reversals and then create opportunities off your motion, which I thought we did.”
Going forward, Riley said they can only go up from here. He was planning on adding a game Friday but after just playing a triple-overtime thriller, he said he’ll hold off and prepare for the Webster County Trojans on Saturday.
He said Wednesday was a big step for his team.
“It’s going to be all positive for me,” he said was his takeaway. “I’m real proud of the guys. This is Evansville Bosse, we ain’t used to playing those guys. To play them to a triple-overtime game, this is the kind of game you wish would have been, without COVID, where everybody comes to the game. There were a few people here that saw a great high school basketball game. We’ll build on it.”
Evansville Bosse 82, Owensboro Catholic 80 (3OT)
BHS (14-0) 8 11 29 9 (24) 82
OC (6-3) 10 19 12 16 (23) 80
BHS: Jameer Ajibade 9, Matt Wagner 26, Taray Howell 3, Julian Norris 29, Dredon Nunn 6, Xavier Burton 9
OC: Brian Griffith 23, Gray Weaver 8, Parker Gray 2, Luke Scales 5, Ji Webb 34, Sam McFarland 8
