Mules fall to Ladue in double OT

A case of a lot of missed opportunities ultimately cost the Poplar Bluff Miles basketball team Friday night against visiting Ladue Horton Hawkins.

The Mules (6-7) saw a number of missed shots at the rim and untimely turnovers — especially in the first half — keep the hosts from building a bigger lead early and the Rams (11-4) made Poplar Bluff pay, winning 85-80 in a double overtime thriller that showed the best and the curious of the hometown team.

Leading the Mules were Darius Graham (17 points), Isaiah Nevel (15) and Brendan Durden (12).

“Defensively I think we played one of our better games since the beginning of the year,” Mules head coach William Durden said. “ We just didn’t take care of the ball at times and we dribbled too much.. At the end of the game we still had our chances, but we missed an assignment on defense and they hit a three and we were scrambling again.

“I thought the kids played pretty well it’s just too bad we couldn’t come out on top.”

The Mules took a four-point lead on a three by Graham as the two teams raced out to an explosive start on the scoreboard.

The first quarter ended with Poplar Bluff up 21-19 on a Rivers layup as the buzzer sounded putting a cap to a frenetic eight minutes.

Things cooled off a bit in the second quarter but a three-point play by Gavin Rivers gave the Mules a 27-21 lead with 5:33 remaining before halftime.

The teams exchanged good and bad play and the Mules led 37-29 at the break on a Terrance Williams runner before the buzzer and went into half with a lead that could have been even bigger.

“We could’ve been up 15 or 20 points,“ Coach Durden said. “If we had locked down in the beginning of the second half the result me a bit similar to the first half, instead we gave them a little confidence.”

The Rams pulled within three early into the second half as Poplar Bluff got shots it wanted but failed to finish on numerous point-blank opportunities.

Poplar Bluff bumped its edge to six points, but both teams seemed to lose any of their blistering offensive mojo from earlier and the game ebbed into a knockdown drag out battle.

A late push pulled the Rams to within one and Poplar Bluff got an and-one from Rivers to lead 46-44 with eight minutes to go.

After the Rams took a lead Nevel changed the script with a three to put the hosts up 51-49 two minutes 8th the final quarter.

A case of dribbleitis flared up for the Mules leading to a handful of inopportune turnovers and the Rams capitalized to go up 60-55 with 2:47 remaining.

Hope seemed to be dwindling and the Mules trailed 65-60 late, but thanks to a Nevel rip and layup, the Mules found themselves down 66-64 with 4.6 seconds left when Preston Moore caught the inbounds pass raced up the court and tossed in a runner to tie the game and give the fans four more minutes of hoop.

The Rams got the edge again when they led by three points late in the extra session but Brendan Durden buried a tying 3 to make it 71-all with less than 20 seconds left.

A defensive stop with 4.8 gave the ball back to the Mules, who couldn’t repeat the feat from earlier and four more minutes went back up on the board.

Poplar Bluff trailed by seven points in the second extra session of the game, but once again rallied to creep closer at 83-80 — but this the Mules ran out of time.