Nail biter, barn-burner, cliffhanger. Call it what you will, but Friday night’s boys basketball clash between the Southern Bulldogs and the Glen Burnie Gophers had it all — and then a little bit extra.
But finally, after four quarters and a pair of overtime periods, the visiting Bulldogs finally prevailed, as Southern toppled Glen Burnie, 70-69, in double overtime.
After engineering a comeback from down 12 in the fourth quarter, Southern (5-2) required a bit of a Houdini act with multiple defensive stops in the final 10 seconds after missed free throws and a turnover forced their backs against the wall.
“At the end of the game, we got to finish a little better. We missed two free throws. We turned the ball over. We can’t do that against a well-coached team,” Southern head coach Will Maynard said. “I’m going to have more gray hair after this game.”
Ethan Sheffey and Brian Griffin engineered Southern’s comeback. Sheffey notched 31 points and fueled the fourth-quarter frenzy, repeatedly getting to the basket and drawing fouls. He got to the charity stripe and drilled 10 free throws in the fourth quarter. The final was the most important, the final touches of an old-fashioned 3-point play that tied the game at 59 with under a minute left.
Griffin meanwhile, did most of his damage from behind the arc, delivering huge triples to swing the momentum back toward the visitors. In the second overtime, Griffin took over, scoring all seven of Southern’s points to secure the victory.
“Good leadership. I’ve been very hard on them being leaders,” Maynard noted of Sheffey and Griffin. “They played huge roles for us last year and they’re going to be huge for our success, especially with us missing [two starters] right now, those two guys have to take an added load, not really offensively, but in leadership.”
Glen Burnie got off to a hot start, leading 16-8 after a quarter, in part due to a hot offensive start by Greg Pittman. Pittman finished with 19 points, 10 of which came in the opening frame. His hot start rolled into the beginning of the second quarter, when his 3-pointer gave the Gophers a 19-8 lead. However, Southern ripped off a 19-8 run of its own to knot the score at halftime. Sheffey went on a personal 8-0 run to spark the surge.
In the second half, Glen Burnie came out stronger once more, holding Southern scoreless for over five minutes in the third quarter. Tim Shadare (14 points) poured in a pair of 3s in the third quarter, and Glen Burnie opened up a 42-29 advantage. However, Southern’s hot shooting from deep kept the deficit in control. Daevan Crampten came off the bench and struck a corner 3, before Griffin hit yet another to close the gap to 43-35 at the third-quarter buzzer.
Maynard shouted out Crampten, along with fellow role players Davin Kess and Drew Crandell for stepping up and playing big minutes as Southern battled through the absence of two starters.
Multiple times in the fourth quarter, it looked like Glen Burnie had done enough to put a bow on a wire-to-wire victory. The Gophers led 49-38 with 5:51 to play and possessed all the momentum. But Sheffey hit on 3 of 4 free throws and Griffin dished to Rex Wooster underneath for a key layup.
The Bulldogs ratched up the defensive pressure and swarmed every Gopher ball handler.
“We started pressing, and it got us back in the game,” Maynard said. “We knew that [Pittman] was their main ball-handler. They were doing a good job against our zone press. I told them to scrap that, we were just going to deny him and make someone else beat us, and if they beat us, then so be it.”
Glen Burnie found contributions from elsewhere on the roster, but Southern did enough to slow down the Gophers and get back in the game. Pittman finished with just four points in the second half.
As the clock wound down, Southern got the ball to Sheffey who got to the hoop, made the layup and drew the foul. He drained the free throw to send the game to overtime.
A defensive first overtime period seemed like it was tilting Southern’s way, but Shadare pulled up from well beyond the arc, closer to his own bench than the 3-point line, and swished a game-tying triple to tie the game, 63-63.
The final overtime period was a battle of attrition as tired legs gave way to sloppy offense, turnovers and missed free throws. After Griffin produced a 3-point play to put the Bulldogs up 68-67, Southern’s defensive pressure forced a five-second violation, and Griffin was able to drive the lane once more for a layup and a 70-67 advantage.
From there, it was on the Bulldogs’ defense. Anthony Thomas stepped up with a massive block on the ensuing Glen Burnie possession and secured the defensive rebound on an ensuing second-chance effort.
“That was huge for him. He played JV last year, I knew he had potential. He’s gotten thrown into the fire, and he’s replacing a double-digit scorer that’s out right now,” Maynard said. “You can tell he’s growing up. It’s not a talent thing with Anthony, it’s a confidence thing. I’ve challenged him all season to be better defensively, and he answered the call.”
Along with the defensive stops, Thomas chipped in four points, including two big free throws towards the end of the first overtime.
Glen Burnie would get one more basket and forced a turnover, getting two cracks at the game-winning bucket. But it couldn’t find the magic touch, falling one painful point short, 70-69.
Southern snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 3-1 in conference play, while Glen Burnie dropped to 2-2.
