The Blazers and Bruins would play in a tense overtime match-up on Friday evening, with both teams playing great basketball throughout the game. The Blazers would start the game slow, with the Bruins building a 9-3 lead prior to Blazer Coach
Kevin Bruinsma calling a timeout to settle the Blazers.
Ben Milliken would hit three three pointers on four trips down the court to pull within one at 13-12 and the Bruins would use their first timeout of the game. The Blazers would stay hot as Milliken would hit another three pointer, the last of five consecutive three pointers that he made in the first quarter, while
Justin Brock and
Cale Zeltwanger would get big baskets as well to end the quarter with a 2 point lead at 19-17. Milliken would make his first three pointer of the second quarter as well, making it six consecutive three pointers made to start the game for Ben. That 6th three pointer was part of a 12-3 run that saw offensive production from almost everyone on the court.
Aiden Reeves,
Drew Sirianni, Milliken, Zeltwanger and
Travis Miller would each make a basket during the run to make it 31-20. The Blazers would get two huge baskets from Miller to finish the quarter at 35-28. The first would come after Reeves found the ball on the rebound off the rim and batted it right to Miller standing underneath the hoop for an easy layup and the second came after Brock found Miller off the backboard for an easy two points as time expired. To begin the third quarter,
Drew Sirianni would sink four straight baskets to push the lead to 15 at 43-29. Miller would return the unconventional assist from Brock at the end of the first half as he'd drive to the basket and have his shot attempt blocked, straight to Brock standing outside of the three point line and Brock would drain the three to push the game back out to a 13 point lead at 48-35. But the Bruins would come right back and finish the quarter on a 10-0 run to claw back to 48-45 going into the fourth quarter. The Bruins would come all the way back and tie the game with just over 5 minutes to go at 52-52, but the Blazers would get a big fourth quarter from Zeltwanger and Sirianni as both made huge baskets down the stretch to keep the Blazers in it. With the game tied at 58 and 40 seconds to go, the Blazers would have a shot blocked and the Bruins gained possession of the ball, calling a timeout with 30 seconds on the clock, looking to draw up one last play to run. The Bruins would come out and score to take their first lead since early in the first quarter at 60-58 and the Blazers would then turn over the ball on the throw in, forcing them to foul to stop the clock with 5.2 seconds left.
Cale Zeltwanger would force a turnover off of the inbound and win the race to the ball, dodging another defender and placing the ball up off the backboard and into the hoop to force overtime at 60-60. Neither team would score until the final minute of the four minute overtime period until Brock would regain a loose ball and find Sirianni waiting under the basket for the go-ahead basket. But the Bruins came right back with a huge basket of their own to make it 62-62 with 31 seconds to go. The Blazers would catch the Bruins trying to pick off a pass and leaving a wide open and waiting Milliken in the corner. Milliken, who hadn't made a shot since starting out 6-6 from three point range, buried the three with 12 seconds to go in the game. The Blazers would seal the game with some tough defense on the other end that forced a bad three pointer that didn't make it to the basket and landed out of bounds. The Blazers 65-62 OT thriller victory moves them to 8-4 on the season. Milliken finished with a game high for the Blazers with 21 points, Sirianni posted 16 points and Zeltwanger dropped in 12.
Top Scorers:
The Blazers will now head into the Christmas break, coming back on Monday the 29th as they host the Sarasota Christian Holiday Classic, a four team tournament including Meadowbrook Academy, All Saints' Academy, and Cambridge Christian. The Blazers are slated to tip off against All Saints' Academy at 5:30pm.
