By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN- Buchanan played its own version of survivor Tuesday night, picking up a huge Lakeland Conference varsity basketball game against Coloma on their home floor.
It took three overtime periods to decide the winner, as the Bucks came away with the 47-46 victory.
Eric Cole sank 1-of-2 from the free throw line with 2.4 seconds remaining of the third overtime to notch the win and improve the Bucks to 5-3 in the Lakeland and 7-7 for the season. The Comets drop to 4-4 in league play and 6-7 overall.
Coloma led 34-31 with three minutes to play in regulation, but Buchanan's pesky full court man-to-man defense came away with three consecutive steals.
Buchanan converted those turnovers into six quick points to take a 37-34 lead with less than a minute to play. Damian Bryant picked off the ball all three times and dished off the steals to Cole, who finished with a career high 17 points, on two of the picks and once to Marquis Hall converting the Comet turnovers into points and the lead.
"This was a great game to be involved in," Buchanan coach Reid McBeth said. "It seems better when you get the ball for the last shot every time. We got into a possession at the end of each overtime where it came down to we win the game or send it into another overtime. We got there by our defense. I think we gave them fits with our full court and man-to-man defense."
Coloma tied the game at 37 on an NBA range 3-pointer from Spencer Paulsen, who also scored 17 points in the game, with 47 seconds to play. Buchanan's final attempt to put in the winning bucket failed and the game went into its first OT.
In the first two overtime periods Buchanan took the lead with the Comets answering back to knot the game up at 39 and 43.
After two extra periods the outcome was still undecided. Both times the Bucks worked the clock down the final minute to take the final shot. Both times it came up short.
With the game tied at 46 with 42.5 seconds remaining Coloma turned the ball over on an offensive foul giving the ball back to the Bucks. For the fourth time Buchanan had the opportunity to end the game.
With the clock winding down Cole drove the lane towards the bucket breaking through the Comets sagging zone defense. Kasey Weber picked up his fifth foul with 2.4 seconds to play to send Cole to the charity stripe for the win.
"Both teams battled hard and had opportunities to ice the game,"Coloma coach Brent Nate said after the marathon. "They made some shots and we made some shots. Game's like this are fun. I would be feeling a lot better if we would have won.”
Buchanan also had Jeff Kyles adding 11 points and pulling down a team high 10 rebounds, Avery Brown connected on three from downtown for nine points. "This was huge after coming off the last three losses to Albion, Bridgman, and Eau Claire. These close games are going to pay off down the road," McBeth said.