MORAN — Denton Ramsey saved the best for last.
On a night in which he had been scoreless up to that point, the Crest High senior drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Lancers a 52-49 win over Marmaton Valley Friday.
The win does more than give Crest bragging rights over its arch rival. It also gives the Lancers (14-4) a two-game lead over Marmaton Valley (12-6) in the Class 1A-I substate standings with two games left in the regular season.
Crest was slated to host Jayhawk-Linn Monday evening and will visit Yates Center Friday to wrap up the regular season. The Wildcats have road games at Uniontown Tuesday and Jayhawk-Linn Thursday to wrap up its schedule.
They’ll be hard-pressed to match Friday’s drama, in which Marmaton Valley erased a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter, thanks to a 3-pointer from Todd Stevenson, two more treys from Jaedon Granere and an inside bucket from Brayden Lawson. Granere’s jumper with 2 minutes left in regulation gave the Wildcats a 37-34 lead.
Marmaton Valley’s advantage stood at 40-39 when Crest’s Lane Yocham drained a pair of free throws to tie the score.
The Wildcats’ Tyler Lord gave the home team a 42-40 advantage with 2 seconds left after he was fouled on a shot, and hit both free throws.
The celebration was short-lived.
Marmaton Valley was called for a foul as Crest inbounded the ball with a second left on the clock.
Yocham coolly drained both charities, to send the game to overtime.
THE EXTRA session was more of the same.
Lord hit a pair of free throws to push the Wildcats back on top before the Lancers’ Kole Walter scored to tie the game once again with just over 3 minutes left.
Marmaton Valley’s Garrett Morrison connected on a 3-pointer with 2:45 left to push the home team ahead 47-44.
Both teams came up empty on their next possession before Crest’s Levi Prasko converted a traditional 3-point play with 1:35 left to knot the score once again at 47-47.
The Wildcats came up short on a 3-pointer before Walter hit both free throws at the 1:10 mark to give Crest its first lead of the overtime.
Lawson scored with 47 seconds left to tie the score once more.
