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Wildcats Outlast Bengals in Double Overtime to Remain Undefeated at Home

By Brendan DeVenney, 02/22/17, 9:00AM EST

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Saint Ignatius and Benedictine finally got to play each other on Tuesday evening, after a rescheduling and a postponement pushed the marquee matchup all the way to the end of the season. And safe to say, the game did not disappoint.

Tuesday night’s Northeast Ohio headliner saw the Wildcats and Bengals play a solid, tough 32 minutes only to be knotted at 63-63 a piece at the end of regulation. Benedictine led the entire game before overtime, thanks to some hot shooting from sophomore Davin Ziegler. However, after a tough two overtimes, the Wildcats came out the other side with an 81-80 victory.

Ziegler got the Bengals out to a fast start to grab an early 6-0 lead, and the Bengals got out to a 16-10 lead heading into the second quarter. Saint Ignatius did not help themselves out, shooting 27% in the first quarter, though Benedictine played fierce defense.  

The good news for the Wildcats was that they were hanging around with the Bengals for most of the game, and not falling behind more than seven points in regulation. Though the Wildcats weren’t hitting too many shots, the club stayed in the ballgame thanks to some tough play from Devin Jackson and Matt Davet.

Jackson had a huge end of the third quarter with a big three ball to cut the lead to 43-40, and then had a huge steal and foul, hitting two free throws to make it 43-42.

After being held scoreless in the third quarter, Matt Davet came alive in the fourth and broke out for 11 points in the final eight minutes of regulation. With under a minute to play, and the Bengals up 59-55, Davet powered his way inside to draw an and-1 opportunity to cut the lead to 59-58. Rarely does the foul game work, but on Tuesday night it worked for Saint Ignatius.

The Wildcats then fouled senior Jamari Patterson, who hit two free throws to make it 61-58 with 40 seconds remaining. That left it up to Matt Davet, who was playing with four fouls, to move inside and cut the lead back to one with 29.2 to play. Then after a Marlon Moore putback, Matt Davet got one of the biggest shots of the game. He drew an and-1 with 12.4 to play and tied the game for the first time since 0-0 to make it 63-63.

After a missed Benedictine shot to try and win it in regulation, the Wildcats and Bengals went to overtime. This marked the fourth overtime game this season for the Wildcats, and second in five days.

Saint Ignatius acquired their first lead of the game thanks to an Austen Yarian dribble-drive at 65-63 with 3:34 to go in the first overtime. With that, the Wildcats secured the momentum until Matt Davet got called for his fifth foul with 42.4 to go. That allowed Davin Ziegler to hit two clutch free throws to cut the lead to 71-70.

Then, with Saint Ignatius ahead 73-70, Marlon Moore proved why he’s one of the top players in Northeast Ohio. The senior is headed to West Liberty University, set to play for the current No. 7 team in NCAA Division II. Moore, with 15 seconds left, drilled a game-tying three-pointer, his second of the game, to force another overtime period, knotted at 73-73.

The contest marked Saint Ignatius’ first double overtime game since the 2016 Regional Final back on March 12, when the Wildcats fell to Garfield Heights, 70-69.

Austen Yarian started to hit some clutch free throws in the overtime periods, and finished an impressive 13-of-14 at the charity stripe. But with 24 seconds remaining, Jamari Patterson had a huge steal and transition score to tie the game at 80-80.

The game was then decided on fouls. First, a controversial foul call was assigned to Austen Yarian. The call was originally a defensive foul, but changed to a charge on Yarian. That ended Yarian’s night, and gave the Bengals 9.6 seconds to try and win the game. At this point, with Davet and Yarian out of the game, the tallest player out on the floor for the Wildcats was Luke Wiskes at 6’5’’.

However, Benedictine’s Jonathan Stallworth was called for an offensive foul, which was his 5th of the night. This gave Dominic DiNunzio the chance to win the game with two free throws with 1.5 seconds left.

DiNunzio hit the front end of the two free throws before missing the second on purpose. The Bengals were unable to hit the full court Hail Mary, as Saint Ignatius escaped with a 81-80, double overtime victory to move to 16-5 on the season.

Head Coach Brian Becker ‘77: “Kind of a weird game. I mean the third game in five days, honestly, we didn’t come out ready to play. I thought we had some crazy turnovers, we weren’t sharp offensively. But we found a way to win and that’s the positive thing. We hung in there, we grinded it out. We didn’t rebound particularly well all game long. What won us the game? Dom DiNunzio with a nice boxout and makes a free throw. The game is fundamentals and if you play solid fundamentals for 32 minutes you’ll usually win. Tonight, give Benedictine credit, they’re a very good defensive team, they’re a very quick team. That’s a good basketball team over there.”

Saint Ignatius was led in scoring by Austen Yarian with a game-high 27 points, and shot 92% from the charity stripe. He also contributed inside with 13 rebounds. Matt Davet finished with 22 points before fouling out, and Devin Jackson had 14 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, finishing 8-for-8 at the free throw line.

Benedictine was led in scoring with Marlon Moore’s 24 points and 7 rebounds.

The Wildcats will now have two days to gear up for their regular season finale on Friday night versus Kenston, who will enter with a 12-9 record. That game will also be Senior Night for the five senior starters on Coach Becker’s ballclub: Devin Jackson, Michael Spear, Colin Goodfellow, Austen Yarian, and Matt Davet.

Following that game, the Wildcats will have a full week of rest before their tournament opener on Saturday, March 4 inside Sullivan Gymnasium versus the Sectional Semifinal winner between Parma Senior and Valley Forge in the Sectional Final of the Strongsville District.

“I think we’re in good shape. I think we need a little bit of a rest,” Coach Becker said. “After Kenston, we have a week off until our next game. So I think we had a little bit of tired legs. But I like where we are, we just need to hit the reset button after losing to Westerville down there. But I think we’ll be ready to go going into the tournament.”

Junior Varsity (now 18-2 after their 75-39 win over Benedictine on Tuesday) tips off at 5:30, with Varsity scheduled to start around 7:00, but that could be subject to change with Senior Night festivities during pregame.