By Jon Johnson
THATCHER – While these type of games cause coaches to go grey early and diehard fans to clutch their chests, for the pure basketball fan an overtime game with the crowd getting into it at the end is just the way to start the season. And as a bonus, the Eagles got the win over the Payson Longhorns on Tuesday night, 44-42 in an overtime matchup.
With the game tied at 42, Thatcher had the ball and 14.7 seconds to decide what to do with it. After a timeout, Chad Johnson inbounded the ball to Issac Palmer, who led the team with 23 points on the night.
Palmer soon faced a triple team and swung the ball to his left to an open Johnson on the wing. After initially looking like he was going to take the open 3, Johnson drove to his left along the baseline and then pulled up with a jumper with about 5 seconds left that fell through the hoop.
As the final seconds ticked off, Payson had trouble inbounding the ball and by the time they got it in they didn’t even get a final shot before the buzzer sounded.
“Very ugly,” Thatcher head coach Kyle Hull described the win. “But I’m glad it’s out and I’m glad it’s in the win column this time. Glad it’s over. Our guys played great defensively . . . We have tons of offensive threats but man that ball was just not getting in the bucket.”
Both teams only managed two field goals each in the first quarter, with Thatcher enjoying a 6-4 lead due to one of its field goals being a Chad Johnson 3-pointer and the addition of a made free throw.
Thatcher had its most productive offensive quarter in the second when Hudson Lopeman scored all 6 of his points to lead the quarter with Issac Palmer.
Palmer led the game scoring for Thatcher with 23 points and was 9 for 17 from the charity stripe. Chad Johnson finished with 7 points; Wade Hull and Hudson Loperman had 6 points each, and Braden Bryce had 2.
Payson was led by Payton Stuart and Marco Guereque with 11 points each; Omar Fierro-Nava had 10; and five others had 2 points each.
Stuart led a comeback in the third as he hit three 3-pointers in the quarter. Payson scored 14 points in the third compared to just 7 for Thatcher, and entered the fourth trailing by a single field goal, 28-26.
The Longhorns took their first lead in the game early in the fourth quarter. Palmer went 5-7 from the free throw line in the fourth and had all 7 of Thatcher’s points in the quarter to force overtime at 35-35.
Palmer added 5 more points in the overtime period and was assisted with Braden Bryce’s only points in the game and Chad Johnson’s game winner.
Coach Hull credited his defense with the win and looked forward to playing more together as a team.
“We’ve been working hard in practice and the defensive effort tonight – that was the difference in the game. We can build off that because we have a lot of offensive threats. We just got away with one.”
Thatcher (1-0 conference, 1-0 overall) will travel to face the Blue Ridge Yellowjackets on Thursday, Dec. 4, starting at 7:30 p.m.
In other local prep basketball action:
The 3A Safford Bulldogs (1-0 conference, 1-1 overall) defeated the Globe Tigers 77-74 on Dec. 1. Safford will next host the Benjamin Franklin Chargers on Thursday, Dec. 4, starting at 7 p.m.
The 2A Pima Roughriders defeated the Benson Bobcats 62-31 on Tuesday. The Roughriders will next host the Scottsdale Christian Eagles on Saturday, Dec. 6, starting at 5 p.m.
The 1A Fort Thomas Apaches defeated the Dishchii’bikoh Wildcats 81-41 on Tuesday and defeated the San Carlos Braves 72-58 on Wednesday. The Apaches will next travel to face the Baboquivari Warriors on Friday, Dec. 5, starting at 6 p.m.
