LEES CREEK – When things started going bad, they snowballed in a hurry for the home team.
Georgetown rallied from down by as many as 18 points in the second half, sending the game into overtime with a corner 3-pointer with six seconds left, then held off an East Clinton flurry in the final minute of OT for a 73-71 road victory Friday night.
East Clinton took a 3-point lead in overtime, but a G-Men trey from Jon Strickland and a lay-in by Noah Pack put the visitors up two with over a minute to play.
The Astros held the ball for the final 45-plus seconds, nearly losing it before Wyatt Floyd got off a desperation 3-pointer from deep. Dylan Michael grabbed the offside rebound and attempted a put-back at the buzzer, but the rim was unkind and the home team came up short.
East Clinton started the night slow, falling behind 10-2 before JT McCarren finally broke the ice for the Astros with their first bucket at the 2:36 mark of the first quarter. McCarren’s bucket sparked a 12-2 EC run and a Michael 3-pointer at the first quarter buzzer had the Astros up 14-12 after one.
McCarren scored seven of his game-high 26 points in the opening frame. He had 22 points after three quarters but was held to only four free throws in the fourth quarter and overtime.
It looked like EC was going to control the game as the home team hit on 11-of-15 shots in the second quarter and the Astro lead ballooned to 41-27 at the intermission.
Floyd scored six of his 21 points in the quarter and Alex Pence provided a spark inside with five points and four boards in the quarter. Despite going for 21 points, Floyd struggled from the field, going 7-for-20 and 6-of-10 from the free throw line.
East Clinton’s lead swelled to 47-29 a couple minutes into the second half, but the home team struggled to put Georgetown away due to turnovers against the G-Men press and missing free throws.
Georgetown got the lead down to 56-42 entering the fourth quarter and then put some serious heat on the Astros in the final quarter behind Cameron Brookbank and Pack on the inside. Brookbank hit on a pair of and-1s and scored nine of his 10 points in the fourth quarter.
Pack battled through foul trouble all night and finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds for a big time double-double. Strickland chipped in with 17 points of his own including his own and-1 in the fourth quarter rally and a clutch trey in overtime. Logan Doss finished with 14 points for the G-Men.
For East Clinton, McCarren and Floyd handled the bulk of the scoring with 47 points between them and no other Astro reached double figures. Michael finished with eight points, seven in the first half, and Pence finished with seven points and nine rebounds. McCarren came up a rebound shy of a double-double by also grabbing nine boards for EC.
The tale of the tape was the fourth quarter as Georgetown hit on 9-of-15 shots in the final quarter while the Astros made just 2-of-5 and turned it over six times. The Astros made 8-of-12 free throws in the fourth quarter while the G-Men hit on 7-of-9.
