Hammond clinches in wild contest

To say Hammond’s region-clinching 65-60 thrilling triple overtime victory over Ben Lippen Friday night had a little bit of everything would be a drastic understatement.

It had so many twists and turns, some things that were story lines at the beginning of the game almost became an afterthought by the time it ended. Players, fans and coaches left the Hammond gym uttering words “incredible,” “unbelievable,” “remarkable” and “classic,” among other things.

“It was a crazy game, but I’m very proud of our guys,” Hammond coach Mark McClam said. “We grew up tonight without Seventh Woods, and won a close game without him.”

Woods, the UNC-bound senior returned and played against Cardinal Newman on Tuesday, but the knee bruise is lingering and he was held out, and will be out at least another week. Hammond will not open the SCISA playoffs until Feb. 23, so the hope is he will be cleared and ready to go by then.

But other players stepped up in his absence.

Chevez Goodwin scored 26 points with 16 rebounds. He did most of his damage in the fourth quarter and first two overtimes. It looked like the Falcons would pull off the upset of the Skyhawks for the second time this season, but a near miracle forced the extra period.

Ben Lippen led by 11 points entering the final period, but left the door open by making 5-of-13 free throws in the final 3:19. Goodwin scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to start the comeback, but Hammond was still down 40-36 with 3.4 seconds remaining.

Banks Brown was fouled and made the first free throw. After a time out, he intentionally missed the second and Goodwin got a hand on it to tip it out to a wide open Lucas Prickett, and the sophomore calmly drilled a 3-pointer to tie it.

McClam said they drew that play up in the huddle and the players executed it to perfection.

“It was kind of a miracle really,” he said.

Ben Lippen coach Ryan Molony wished his team could have closed it out in regulation.

“Obviously, we had a big lead there early in the fourth quarter but that’s a very good basketball team,” he said. “They made a run, I made a dumb call at the end of the game that cost us and we missed a lot of free throws.”

Things really got crazy from there.

Hammond held a 45-44 lead in the waning seconds of the first overtime when Ben Lippen missed two shots for the lead. The Skyhawks got the rebound, but two players were tangled up on the play. Pushing and shoving ensued, and both players were accessed technical fouls and ejected from the game.

At that point, a Hammond student ran onto the floor and pushed the Ben Lippen player. He was quickly ushered out, a few others fans were on the court and were ejected as well, and the officials had to huddle to sort things out.

The verdict – a personal foul on Ben Lippen, the double technical that offset each other and a technical on Hammond for having a fan on the court.

Hammond missed both free throws on the personal foul, and the Falcons only made 1-of-2 and, after a failed shot, it moved to the second overtime.

The second overtime ended when Hammond made 1-of-2 free throws with 22 seconds remaining for a 54-52 lead, but Seth Hester made a runner to force a third overtime.

Finally, Ben Lippen had four players foul out and another ejected, so they had to go deep into the bench. That was enough for Hammond to make enough free throws to close it out.

“I think it goes back to we’ve played tons of big games,” McClam said. “We played in the Chick-fil-A championship, we played in the Greenville championship, the Dreher and Flora games were packed out. This team is amazing with their resiliency. Our chant in the huddle is ‘Believe’ and they did and kept plugging away and good things happened.”

Girls

Hammond 45, Ben Lippen 41: Trinity Johnson ignited a second half rally to allow the Skyhawks to finish the region schedule unbeaten and earn the No. 1 seed in the upcoming SCISA playoffs.

Hammond (19-2, 8-0) trailed 27-21 at the half but Johnson scored seven in an 18-7 run out of the locker room to take control.