Panther boys rally late, win second consecutive overtime game

Clearly, the Panthers did not get enough basketball in last Friday as they followed up a double overtime win over Hiawatha with another win in extra periods against Riverside on Tuesday night.

This time, the RV boys needed just one extra session as they held off the Cyclones at home for a 49-46 victory.

Both teams got off to a slow start on offense, as Royal Valley opened up a slim 8-4 lead after one quarter. While Riverside’s methodical offensive approach played into its slow start, the Panthers themselves were stagnant on offense as coach Keith Pelton said there was a lot of standing around that may have led to some wasted opportunities.

“I think we weren’t getting where we were supposed to go. We weren’t cutting hard early. I thought we did a better job of that later, but they were active. They’re long. The take up a lot of space, so it was kind of hard to get some of those cuts in there and when we got them spread out a little bit, I think we got that,” Pelton said.

Riverside exploited that in the second quarter as the Cyclones swung the turnover battle in their favor and used that to fuel a 15-2 run that put them up 17-10 in the second quarter.

Panther Derrick Barger hit a three with one and half minutes left in the quarter to end that run, but Riverside maintained an 18-13 lead going into the locker room at halftime.

“We got them down early and we just let them come back and then it’s a game the rest of they way, so I’m telling them when you get somebody down, you have to execute better,” Pelton said.

After halftime, Royal Valley seemed to have learned its lesson as the Panthers played with more purpose and better execution right away in the second half. They put their hard hats on and went to work in the post in the third quarter to gradually fight back and retake the lead.

Royal Valley moved the ball around a lot more to open up some scoring opportunities in the low post, with Tristan Tessendorf and Jarrett Roy in particular taking advantage. With one minute left in the third quarter, RV went back ahead and took a 28-27 lead into the fourth quarter.

“We just started sealing. We started stepping into bodies there to get them into the open area instead of floating,” Pelton said.

In the fourth quarter, though, the Panthers and Cyclones were neck-and-neck as neither team held a lead larger than two points in the final quarter of regulation.

Roy and fellow forward Joe Cullen battled foul trouble in the fourth quarter, which limited Royal Valley’s post-scoring. Then, after Roy picked up his fourth foul, Riverside’s Bryer Miller knocked down a three-pointer to give the lead back to the Cyclones.

The teams traded the lead back-and-forth from there, with most of the points coming at the free throw line with both teams in the bonus, though some clutch dribble-drives are what ended up sending the game to overtime.

After Miller missed two free throws with under a minute left, he followed that up on Riverside’s next possession with a slash to the basket for two to put the Cyclones ahead 41-39.

Noah Rottinghaus then came through in the clutch for Royal Valley as he followed suit and drove to the hoop for the game-tying basket with 10 seconds left.

In the extra period, the junior came through again. As the teams remained locked in a free throw battle and seemed destined to stay tied at 45-45 and head to another overtime, Rottinghaus created and hit a step-back jumper with 18 seconds left to give Royal Valley a 47-46 lead. He drained two free throws after that to score the Panthers’ final four points and help the team pull out the 49-46 victory.

Royal Valley’s defense also helped the team grind it out in the end as the Panthers battled for more loose balls in the second half, including Barger forcing a late turnover in overtime that helped secure the win.

“You can hang your hat on that later in the season, remember we grinded this out. Sometimes you just need those,” Pelton said. “Yeah, I’d like to have a blowout every night, but sometimes you don’t learn things from those as you do when you have to grind it out like this.”

The Panthers (3-1) will now get set to travel to Carbondale and take on Santa Fe Trail in their final game before Christmas break on Friday. Action will start at 4:15 p.m.

Dec. 16, 2014

Riv.:  4-14-9-14-5—46

RV:   8-5-15-13-8—49

Individual statistics:

RV:  N. Rottinghaus 8 2-8 18, Tessendorf 4 2-6 10, Roy 1 5-7 7, Barger 1 (1) 4-6 7, Cullen 2 2-4 6, Ehrhart 0 1-2 1. Totals- 16 (1) 16-33 49.

Riv.:  B. Miller 4 (1) 3-10 12, Shue 4 3-6 11, McGaughy 2 6-9 10, LaRue 2 (1) 0-0 5, A. Miller 2 0-0 4, Keller 1 (1) 1-2 4. Totals- 15 (3) 13-27 46.

Team statistics:

Rebounds:  RV- 33 (N. Rottinghaus 9, Tessendorf 9, Cullen 8); Riv.- 22 (Keller 10, Shue 4, LaRue 3).

Assists:  RV- 6 (Barger 3, Roy 3); Riv.- 8 (B. Miller 3, Shue 2).

Turnovers:  RV- 15; Riv.- 18.