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.
Crest held the ball for the final shot, calling timeout with about 16 seconds left.
