Indians survive for rare-road win over Northwest
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com
SENATOBIA, MS – Sophomore point guard Alex Anderson (Memphis, TN) poured in a season-high 29 points as the ICC Indians topped the Northwest Rangers in overtime, 109-102, for a rare win in Senatobia.
"This was a big road win for our guys," said second-year head coach Grant Pate. "Northwest is one of the toughest places to play in our league and they proved that again tonight. I was proud of the effort and the focus our guys played with after the way regulation ended to be able to get a win on the road."
Johnthan McGee (Jackson) drove the baseline and hit a lay-up to give the Indians an 89-87 lead with 3.2 seconds left on the clock, but the Rangers miraculously moved threw the ball in, dribbled to half court and threw an alley-oop lay-up to tie the game as time expired.
"It was very questionable if the clock was started on time, but that's part of the game," said Pate. "We didn't get back on defense and credit give Northwest for not giving up on the play until the horn went off. Hopefully we can use a situation like this as a learning experience for future games."
Anderson and McGee hit back-to-back three pointers to put the Indians up 101-97 before Anderson, McGee, Tyrone Wooten (Memphis, TN), Kevis Fleming (Robinsonville) and Tay Crawford (Aberdeen) combined to hit 8-of-10 free throw attempts in the final minute of the game to hold on for the win.
"I was proud of how the guys dug down to be able to find a way to win," commented Pate. "The way regulation ended it would've been very easy for them to hang their heads, but instead they rallied around each other a gutted out overtime to pick up a win over a very tough Ranger squad."
Anderson added 7 assists and 3 steals to his season-high scoring performance.
"I felt like this was one of the best games Alex has played this season," Pate said. "He did a great job of knowing when to push the tempo or slow things down and not only did he do an outstanding job scoring, but he did a great job getting his teammates involved offensively as well."
McGee scored 23 points and Wooten added 17 to help the Indians improve to 8-5 and 3-0 in North Division play.
De'Sean Dockery paced four Rangers scoring in double figures with 21 points as Northwest fell to 6-6 and 2-1 in the division.
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