By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - If you wanted to see a good high school basketball game, Niles was the place to be Friday night. The Vikings hosted St. Joseph for their last Big 16 conference game and last home game of the season.
After a hard fought game by both teams, the Bears ended up taking home the 57-56 win in double overtime.
St. Joe went ahead early in the first quarter, but Niles was quick to catch up and ended the first down by one point 12-11.
The beginning of the second quarter was a repeat of the first with St. Joe taking a quick lead, but the Vikings once again were able to catch up.
Four baskets in a row from Lavette' Walker and Nick Etzcorn pulled the Vikings within one point of the Bears halfway through the quarter. Nate Parks went to the free throw line and made 1-of-2 shots and three point play from Etzcorn gave Niles its first lead of the night 23-22. The Bears were able to pull ahead once again and entered halftime with only a two point lead over Niles 27-25.
The third quarter was a very low scoring quarter for both teams. St. Joe only had one three-pointer from Jacob Olson and Niles only got eight points from Etzcorn, Tom Robson and Pete Brandstatter. But the eight points was enough to give Niles the 33-30 lead going into the fourth.
Both teams went back and fourth with the lead in a very intense fourth quarter. David Clore racked up seven points for St. Joe and Olson had five. Parks had six and Etzcorn two in the quarter for Niles. St. Joe had a one-point lead with seven seconds on the clock when Brandstatter was fouled by St. Joe's Pat Buursma and put him on the line for a 1-and-1. Brandstatter made 1-of-2 shots, which was enough to put the Vikings in overtime with the score tied at 42.
With only four minutes on the clock in overtime, both teams had scoring on their minds. Clore opened it up with two points for St. Joe, but Parks added two of his own to keep it tied at 44. David Allen gave the Bears their next two points, but a three from Robson put Niles up by one 47-46.
Robson was fouled on the next play and made 1-of-2 free throws to keep the Vikings up by two. St. Joe's Clore added one last basket for the Bears to allow them to go into double overtime tied at 48.
Robson nailed a three-pointer in the first minute of play in double overtime to give the Vikes a three point lead, but Ben Hansen drew a foul on St. Joe's Clore to put him on the line. He made 2-of-2 free throw shots to put the Bears back within one.
Hansen was able to attempt two free throws for himself on the next play for Niles. He missed both, but Etzcorn was right there to grab the rebound and add two to Niles' score to put them back up 53-50.
Jared Knuth bombed a three for the Bears on the next play to once again tie the score at 53, but Hansen scored two more for Niles to put them ahead 55-53.
Clore was the next to score for St. Joe with 1:12 left to tie the score at 55. Kyle Hammond fouled Robson to put him on the line and cause his fifth foul of the night. Robson made 1-of-2 to put the Vikings back ahead 56-55.
With 3.3 seconds left, St, Joe had possession of the ball just a few feet shy of the half court line. Clore attempted a shot, but missed and was able to grab his own rebound and put it back in for the 57-56 win.
There was a lot of speculation on the last second shot. Some claimed he didn't make it in time, others said he did. The officials didn't hear the buzzer and after a quick meeting decided the basket was good which threw a lot of Niles fans through the ceiling and was a devastating loss for the Vikings.
The loss takes the Vikings to their final 3-5 conference record.
Etzcorn lead Niles with 17 points and Parks had 11.
Clore had 29 for St. Joe and Olson had nine.
Niles will not play until next Friday when they host Coldwater for the Challenge game. Tip off is set for 7:30 p.m.
Niles' JV team picked up a 60-46 win against the Bears.
Dan Rodts had 22 points for Niles. Chauncey Williams had 10 and Kurt Bourbonnais and Josh Moffitt both had seven for the Vikings.
The Niles Freshman suffered a 50-48 loss against St. Joe.
Niles………..56
St, Joe……..57
Niles (56) Nate Orr 0 0-0 0, Scott Quaye 0 0-0 0, Tom Robson 1 1 2-1 6, Ben Hansen 2 2-1 5, Nate Parks 2 8-7 11, Paul Wregglesworth 2 1-1 5, Brandon Thomas 0 1 3-1 4, Nick Etzcorn 7 2-2 16, Pete Brandstatter 1 2-1 3, Lavette Walker 3 0-0 6, Andrew Foster 0 0-0 0
St. Joe (57) Kyle hammond 1 0-0 2, Pat Buursma 2 0-0 4, Joe Cleveland 1 4-1 3, Dan Harrison 0 0-0 0, Graham Gentry 0 0-0 0, Ben Schuenemn 0 0-0 0, Jacob Olson 0 3 0-0 9, David Clore 10 1-7 29, Steven Dahn 0 1 0-0 3, David Allen 2 0-0 4, Jared knuth 1 1 0-0 5, Thomas Chrisco 0 0-0 0
Niles 11 25 33 42 48 56
St. Joe 12 27 30 42 48 57