Huskies Win OT Thriller

There was some nerves before the season opener against Darrow. Fredrick Gym was packed and it had some of the best energy we have ever experienced.

 

It was fitting that the first Huskies points came off of a steal and dunk from senior captain Chad Cook. We settled a little bit early on with some tough shots, and we were dealing with some foul trouble early. Ayden Veler provided 3 assists on cruicial possessions and Griffin Sward energized the crowd with 6 points and a charge taken, which helped sparked the Huskies during their lull in the middle part of the first half. The Huskies entered halftime up 5.

 

In the second half, the Huskies jumped out to a 12 point lead with strong offensive execution and by limiting Darrow to tough contested shots and no offensive rebounds. The lead evaporated when we got ice cold from the floor and it translated to really sloppy defensive possessions. At one point, the Huskies were down 7 with under 3 minutes to play. We came up with key stops late, and kept our composure in the heat of the moment. Jayden Harrington made back to back clutch buckets and Edison Onwe made a layup plus the foul to narrow the Darrow lead to 1. After their offensive possession, we found ourselves with the ball down 2 with 15 seconds to go. James Sanderson was fouled shooting a layup with .6 on the clock. James calmly sank both free throws and forced overtime.

 

In Overtime, New Hampton was able to get a dunk and went 10/10 from the free throw line to ice out the game. Tensions got high at the end, but we were able to rally around one another and come away with a huge 100-96 win over a league opponent.

 

The Huskies had balance scoring with 3 players scoring in double digits: Chad Cook (23 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists), Stetson Merritt (32 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists) and James Sanderson (13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists).