Advance boys basketball team slips past Oran in overtime

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Oran offered Hunter Wilson a few opportunities for redemption Tuesday.

The Advance senior made the most of his second chances.

Wilson sank a crucial 3-pointer late in regulation to force a tie and went 7 of 8 from the free-throw line in overtime to lead the Hornets past the Eagles 69-59 in a battle of Class 2 District 3 boys basketball rivals.

Wilson's 3-pointer with less than two minutes remaining in regulation went against the plan.

"Mainly looking to get more inside," Wilson said. "We were just going with the flow. If I was open, I was going to shoot it. We were trying to get it in to Ethan [Barr] inside."

Wilson's 3-pointer hit the rim and bounced off. It was his eighth consecutive miss from 3-point range in the game. But an offensive rebound bought Wilson another chance, and he drilled it to forge a 51-51 tie with 1 minute, 22 seconds left.

Advance decided to hold the ball for the last shot after an Eagles turnover with 1:06 left, but Oran coach Joe Shoemaker had other ideas. He had Blake Henson foul Jacob Spears with 23 seconds left and the game tied.

"I just didn't want to give them the last shot on their home court," Shoemaker said. "I wanted to get a chance to get the ball back as the visiting team and to make something happen."

Advance coach Andrew Halford laughed about his plan going awry.

"Joe got me there," Halford said. "We was wanting to hold on, take the last shot and he saw Spears, who hadn't shot overly well from the free-throw line. Joe's smart. He saw him pick up the ball and they decided to foul him. Spears did a good job of stepping up and being confident and knocking down some big free throws."

Spears faced a one-and-one, and he swished both attempts for a two-point lead. A fist pump followed the first make and a loud, "Yeah" the second.

Oran (13-9) offered Wilson a chance to seal the Eagles' fate after a Kody Moore miss. But Wilson missed the front end of a one-and-one to keep the Eagles' deficit at two points with 8.4 seconds remaining.

"I should have made that free throw," Wilson said.

Wilson more than made up for the miss in overtime.

But the Eagles first had to force overtime. Oran's Seth Ressel drove to the basket with the clock winding down, and the Advance defense collapsed on him. He dished off to Adam Schaefer, who laid it in with 2 seconds remaining.

Advance's last-second heave was intercepted to force overtime.

The Hornets (15-8) grabbed their final lead on a basket by Tyler Middleton with 1:57 left in the four-minute overtime session. Wilson clinched the game from there. He made his next six free-throw attempts to ice the Eagles.

"It's all mental," Wilson said. "It's all in your head. You just got to go up there and believe you're going to make them."

Wilson tied for the team lead with 21 points, and nine came in overtime.

Advance went 10 of 13 from the free-throw line in overtime.

"You show them that you have confidence in them and preparation," Halford said about his team's pressure free-throw shooting. "We shoot a lot of free throws. Every day, we're in here getting up shots, getting up free throws. It's just a repetition type thing. And again, showing them, ‘Hey, I know you're going to knock them down, so go do it so we can get back on defense.'"

The Eagles went 2 of 12 from the field and committed three turnovers in overtime.

"We were starting to rush our shots and they were getting rebounds," Oran junior Alex Heuring said. "Really, we just had to start fouling because we thought maybe they'd start missing. But they didn't. They're a good free-throw shooting team, and they made us pay."

Advance led for the majority of the first three quarters, but Oran reeled off a 10-0 run spanning the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth to grab the lead. Moore's 3-pointer with 3:34 left in the fourth gave the Eagles a three-point lead until Wilson answered with his 3.

Neither team shot well in regulation. Oran was at 36 percent (21 of 58), while Advance connected on 37 percent of its shots (21 of 57).

"They play solid half-court defense," Halford said. "They don't give you anything easy. They take away what you want. And on the other side of it, we just didn't shoot very well. I credit their defense a lot for that."

The Hornets hope the win pays off today during the district seeding meeting.

"They're in our district, so we've got to get this win," Barr said. "We wanted that No. 1 seed."

Oran 11 12 15 15 6 -- 59

Advance 17 8 13 15 16 -- 69

ORAN (59) -- Kody Moore 12, Seth Ressel 11, Alex Heuring 21, Adam Schaefer 6, Hunter Schlosser 9. FG 23, FT 9-13, F 20. (3-pointers: Moore 3, Ressel 1. Fouled out: none)

ADVANCE (69) -- Tyler Middleton 6, Aaron Veale 2, Hunter Wilson 21, Lane Below 8, Trey Wallace 7, Jacob Spears 4, Ethan Barr 21. FG 24, FT 18-26, F 15. (3-pointers: Wilson 2, Below 1. Fouled out: none)