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Tuesday, Jan. 17 – With a strong finish, the Rockbridge County High School boys basketball team earned a 40-33 overtime win at home over Valley District rival Turner Ashby on Tuesday night in Lexington.
On a night when neither team shot well, the Wildcats (7-8 overall, 2-1 district) and TA (3-11, 0-3) were tied 30-30 at the end of regulation, but RC outscored the Knights 10-3 in overtime, with Matthew Burkhart and Henry Lambert making key free throws in the final stretch.
Burkhart scored five of his nine points in overtime, while Lambert scored three of his five points in the extra period. Keaton Owsley added nine points for the Wildcats, Milo Mulitalo scored six points, Andreas Poindexter chipped in five points, all in the first quarter, and took two charges. Brandon Mays added four points, and the Wildcats got strong defense from Darodne’ Stores.
Early in the game, the Wildcats jumped out to a 9-2 lead, but the Knights went on a 6-0 run to cut it to 9-8 by the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, TA took its first lead of the game when Beau Baylor hit a 3-pointer to put the Knights up 17-15. Baylor made another 3-pointer moments later, helping TA take a 20-19 lead into halftime. For the game, Baylor led all players with 14 points, 12 of them in the first half.
Neither team could get its offense going in the third quarter, as TA outscored RC 5-2 and took a 24-21 lead into the fourth quarter.
From late in the third quarter through about two minutes into the fourth quarter, the Knights went on an 8-0 run to go up 30-21. Owsley finally stopped that run by making an inside basket and then a pull-up jumper, and he then made a three-point play to cut TA’s lead to 30-28 with 3:19 left.
It was a defensive battle for the rest of regulation, with Burkhart tying the game at 30-30 by making an inside basket on an assist from Mulitalo with 1:07 left, and the score remained the same until overtime.
In the overtime period, Burkhart hit a jump shot on RC’s first possession, but TA’s Nolan Bailey tied the game at 32-32 with an inside basket. Mays then scored on an inside basket, and the Wildcats limited TA to one free throw for the rest of the game, as Lambert and Mays executed from the line.
Other than Baylor, TA’s leading scorers were Micah Shank with six points, Jack Fox with five, and Bailey with four.
TA committed 16 turnovers, while the Wildcats had nine turnovers.
The Wildcats will continue Valley District play on Friday when they visit Broadway, starting with junior varsity action at 5:30 p.m.
For the full story on this week’s action, with photos from Tuesday’s win, please see our Jan. 25 newspaper. The story and photos from last week’s action will be in Wednesday’s newspaper.
