On Wednesday night the Hastings College men defeated Midland Lutheran 129-124 in four overtimes at the MLC Events Center in Fremont, Nebraska. In the game Jeremiah Slough scored 61 points for the Broncos and set a single game scoring record in the GPAC. However, there is more to the story on how the Broncos even made it to Fremont.
The Hastings College men's basketball team competed in an instant classic last night against Midland Lutheran winning in 4 OT's 129-124. The Broncos started slowly, which unfortunately for the team, started even before game time. On the way to the game, the bus that the basketball team was travelling in lost its transmission. With little time to get to the game, transportation could not make it from Hastings, so Head Coach Lance Creech called Doane College, who was close by to borrow vans to finish the trip. Doane was hosting a game that night and did not need the vans. Therefore, Doane's Head Coach Ian Brown and his assistants volunteered to drive the school's vans to the stranded Hastings team, and the Broncos finished the trip to Fremont. The team did not arrive to the gymnasium until just after 6:00 pm. After all of this, the players had to focus on the upcoming game of a Midland team that had played very well the last 4 games, losing all 4 games by a total of 11 points.
The Broncos looked like they had just experienced a long trip and were sluggish out of the gates. The Warriors jumped out early and led for the entire first half slowly building a lead. The largest lead of the half was 14 points just minutes before the intermission, and the Broncos were behind 28-40 at half. Hastings only shot 9-30 from the field and had 10 turnovers in the first 20 minutes. Jeremiah Slough ended the first half with 13 points leading the team. The second half saw the Warriors increase their lead to 17 early on, but the Broncos slowly chipped away at the lead. At the 10:55 mark, they were able to get the deficit under double digits, but were never able to take the lead. The Broncos were able to hit a couple key 3 point shots at the end of the game, and Slough hit the biggest one tying the game at 76 with 10 seconds left putting the game into the first overtime. Slough ended regulation with 37 points, which was just the beginning.
After 42 minutes and 19 seconds, the Broncos finally got their first lead at 81-80. Neither team got up by more than 2 points in the first overtime. With 49 seconds to play, Slough made 1-2 free throws to put Hastings up two when Jason Ahrens tied the score with 39 seconds left ending the first overtime at 84-84.
In the second overtime, the Broncos had a nine point lead with 1:15 left but could not hold it, and Midland ended the period with a 9-0 run to tie the game 101-101. In the third overtime, Hastings had a one point lead with Waid Vontz on the line for two shots. He made one of two, and Eric Pieper tied the game with a lay up with one second left 114-114.
After 60 minutes of basketball, the Broncos would finally come out on top. During the 4th overtime, a foul was called on the Warriors, and as a result of arguing, Midland was handed a double technical foul. The Broncos made 5-6 free throws to go up by 6, and Midland did not have enough to make a final come back ending the marathon with a 129-124 victory for the Broncos. Coach Creech was very pleased with his team "for the guts" that they showed throughout the game.
Captain Jeremiah Slough, a senior guard from Doniphan, NE became the story of the evening for the 4 OT game. Slough shot 18-32 from the field, 8-15 behind the arc, and 17-21 from the free throw line totaling 61 points. He ended the first half with 13 points, ended regulation with 37 points and totalled 24 points in the overtime periods. This is a new Great Plains Athletic Conference record breaking former Dana Viking Jason Isaacson's record of 48 points on January 21st, 2006. It broke Hastings College Hall of Famer Benny "The Gun" Crawford's record of 54 points in the 1963-64 season. It was also 3 points short of the All Time NAIA single game scoring record set back in 1994. Coach Creech obviously was pleased with Slough, but said more importantly, he did more than just score. He ended with 5 steals, 5 assists, and 7 rebounds and played 56 of 60 minutes in the game. Coach Creech simply said, "It was quite a spectacle."
Overshadowed by Slough's game was senior Kylor Dossett who had a career high with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Midland Lutheran's Jason Ahrens also had an outstanding game with a team high of 48 points which would have tied to previous GPAC record. The Broncos look now to travel to Sioux City, IA on Saturday to take on Morningside College.
This is the fourth four overtime game in league history. Just earlier this year the Concordia men outlasted Northwestern in four extra sessions (Concordia won 117-111 on December 12). The Morningside men played Dana to four overtimes on January 21, 2006 (Morningside won 135-133 at Morningside) and the Hastings women played Morningside to four overtimes on February 7, 2004 (Hastings won 105-98 at Hastings).
