After the Prince Avenue Christian Lady Wolverines defeated rival Athens Academy 46-39 in overtime last Tuesday at PACS, the varsity boys’ game went into overtime as well, with the Spartans overcoming a 13-point third-quarter deficit to win 61-57.

VIDEO: Wolverines host Spartans

 “This is a signature win for us,” said Spartans’ head coach James Banks. “I’m proud of our effort, our composure and our combativeness of never giving up. It’s a great region win and we needed it.”

With 18.8 seconds remaining, Prince Avenue Christian’s Hunter Dant hit one of two free-throws to cut the Spartans’ lead to 59-57. Daniel Howell then intercepted a pass on the ensuing in-bounds pass to get possession back to the Wolverines with 12.2 seconds left.

Following a time-out by the Wolverines, Athens Academy’s Mark Sanders stole the ball, dribbled down the length of the floor, passed to Nick Miller, who passed the ball to Jordan Richardson for a lay-up with six seconds left to seal the win for the Spartans.

“They ran a similar play earlier in the game and I figured it might be coming again,” Sanders said. “It’s a huge win because this is one of the better Prince teams in a while.”

The win for the Spartans was just the second of the season and first in Region 8-AA.

“Hopefully this will be our turning point,” Sanders said. “We played a rough non-region schedule but the difficult schedule is paying off.”

Davis Finney led the Spartans with 20 points. Dant led the Wolverines with 27 points. He was 7-for-11 on 3-point attempts.

“We let one get away,” said Wolverines head coach Danny Howell. “We played well enough to win until the fourth quarter when we turned it over and didn’t make enough free throws to make it happen.”

The Wolverines took a 9-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, never trailed in the second quarter on their way to a 21-19 lead at halftime and led 40-27 with 18 seconds left in the third.

After a 3-pointer by Dant gave the Wolverines a 45-36 lead with 5:12 left in the fourth quarter, the Spartans began to cut into the lead, getting it down to two points on three different occasions before a lay-up by Finney tied the game at 51-51, sending the game into overtime.

In overtime, Finney gave the Spartans their first lead since the first quarter 28 seconds in, but Felipe Howell tied the game 19 seconds later.

With 1:46 left, Dant hit one of two free throws to give the Wolverines a 54-53 lead, but Richardson tied the game at 54 after hitting one of two free throws with 1:03 left.

Daniel Howell’s lay-up off the backboard with 47 seconds left allowed the Wolverines to retake the lead, but Finney’s offensive rebound and putback tied the game at 56, and his free throw gave the Spartans a 57-56 lead with 31 seconds left.

After a Wolverine turnover, Finney was fouled with 22 seconds left and he connected on both free throws.

In the fourth quarter and overtime, the Wolverines connected on 10 of 18 free throws, while the Spartans hit 10 of 13. They were also 4-for-5 in overtime.

“It’s a good learning experience for us because we have to learn how to play with a lead down the stretch,” Coach Howell said. “I’m proud of my guys and the way we played. Both teams fought hard and I give a lot of credit to Athens Academy and we look forward to playing them again in a few weeks.”

In the girls’ game, the Lady Wolverines led 16-6 at the end of the first quarter, but the Lady Spartans fought back in the second quarter and a shot by McGee Hopper tied the game at 20-20 going into halftime.

“We just weren’t ready to play, which is my fault,” said Lady Spartans head coach Kevin Petroski. “It would have been easy for us to say when we got down that the game was over, but we never gave up. We started going inside and we hit some big shots, and we got some turnovers. We took our time coming back and by halftime it was a new game.”

The Lady Wolverines committed 13 turnovers in the first half.

“We played a great first quarter except for the turnovers and in the second quarter, the turnovers really let them hang around,” said Lady Wolverines head coach Richard Ricketts.

The largest lead either team had in the third quarter was 27-22 after a basket by Amber Howell with 5:11 left in the quarter. From that point, the Lady Spartans went on a 6-2 run to trail 29-28 going into the fourth.

Two quick 3-pointers by Haley Soles gave the Lady Wolverines a 35-28 lead, but the Lady Spartans fought back and held them to just four more points the rest of the quarter. With 2:07 left, Dynelle Todman gave Athens Academy a 39-38 lead with a basket and a free throw.

Destiny David tied the game at 39 with 42.1 seconds left in the fourth. Both teams had opportunities to get the win in regulation but turnovers helped send the game into overtime.

“We had our chances but it seemed like neither team wanted to win in regulation,” Petroski said.

Howell’s basket with 2:34 left in overtime was the first of the extra frame and proved to be the game-winning points as the Lady Wolverines outscored the Lady Spartans 7-0 in overtime.

“Halfway in the fourth and in overtime, we took over and we rebounded extremely well,” Ricketts said. “Athens Academy survived our push at the start, and when they had their push, it was a matter if we would survive. With the exceptions of turnovers, we played good. We can be a decent team when we don’t turn it over and when we rebound.”

Howell finished with four points in overtime and had 20 in the game to lead the Lady Wolverines.

“We didn’t play our best but we did enough to pull it out,” Howell said. “I love overtime. It’s four minutes to play our game and we did. Our defense helped our offense and we got what we needed to win.”

Soles added 13 points as the Lady Wolverines picked up their first region of the year.

Emily O’Rear led the Lady Spartans with 15 points. Todman added 11 points as the Lady Spartans picked up their first loss in the region.

“This is a big rivalry for us and it’s a big game for both teams,” Petroski said. “Our effort was there other than the first quarter.”

Last Friday, PACS swept Tallulah Falls, with the boys winning 41-26 and the girls winning 52-20.

Last Saturday, PACS played Lakeview and the boys lost 49-38 and the girls won 41-36.

The Lady Spartans defeated Aquinas 48-15 and the Spartans lost to Aquinas 57-28.

Matthew Caldwell is sports editor of The Oconee Leader. He can be reached by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or by phone at (706) 310-1104.

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