Harlem never saw it coming.
In fact, most of the people in the gym never saw it coming.
With five seconds left in regulation and the conference championship on the line, Hononegah did not design a play for all-stater David Brown.
The honors instead went to sophomore Andrew Tapley, who swished his first and only basket of the night with one second remaining to send the game to overtime. Hononegah went on to beat Harlem 61-54.
After it was over, a swarm of Hononegah students rushed to Tapley to slap his back and ruffle his hair.
“It’s probably something he’ll never forget,” Hononegah coach Mike Miller said.
Hononegah (20-3, 10-1 NIC-10) remained in first place, while Harlem (14-5, 8-3) fell two games back. With Freeport beating Auburn Friday, the Indians own a comfortable two-game lead in the conference.
“Things just keep working out for us,” said Miller, whose recent conference wins included come-from-behind victories against Auburn and Boylan. “You can say a lot of things about this team, but boring is not one of them.”
Harlem was on top 49-45 in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter when Hononegah executed two key plays. The first was an in-bounds play that resulted in a Dustin Meier layup with 16 seconds left.
After Harlem made its first of two free throws to take a three-point lead (50-47), Hononegah called a timeout with five seconds left to draw up the play for Tapley.
“We practice it every day,” Brown said. “I knew (Harlem’s defenders) would stay on me. Once I saw that both mine and (Tapley’s) defenders were on me, I saw Tapley in the clear and thought ‘All right, it’s overtime.’ ’’
Tapley’s 3-pointer tied the game at 50 apiece after regulation. Harlem committed four turnovers while Hononegah went 9 for 10 in free throws in the extra period for the win.
“It feels really good to be such a huge part of potentially winning the conference,” said Tapley, who averages 5.7 points for the Indians.
“(Brown) freed me up a lot. If he’s not out there, I don’t have a shot.”
Hononegah jumped out to a 15-10 first-quarter lead with early 3-pointers from Matt Carroll, Brown and Mario Donaldson. Harlem finished the first half with a 7-0 run highlighted by Bo Andrews’ 3-pointer and a steal and layup with two seconds remaining, and the Huskies led 21-20 at halftime.
Harlem kept a modest lead for most of the rest of the way. Brown, Donaldson and Meier all accounted for Hononegah’s key fourth-quarter points, while Harlem was led by one player. Andrews scored all of the Huskies’ points in their 13-3 run that gave them their 49-45 lead in the final seconds.
Andrews finished with 22 points. Chaz Winters followed with 14 points, while Casey Beck and Keenan Kellett both had eight rebounds.
Brown (22 points) and Donaldson (15) were the top scorers for the Indians.
-Emily Tropp, rrstar.com
