By Noah Banks, Contributing Writer
MADISON TWP. — The Madison Mohawks played host to the National Trail Blazers on Tuesday night in a non-conference matchup at Madison.
The Mohawks came into the game looking to bounce back after a tough loss to conference rival Northridge in the final seconds of Friday night’s game.
Along with that, it was the Mohawks turn to honor their five seniors in their final game at Madison — Mason Whiteman, Evan Crim, Cameron Morgan, Ryan Duritsch and Levi Mcmonigle.
Those seniors helped in crucial times during a triple overtime thrilling 75-72 victory over the Blazers.
“These seniors have really done so much for us, back to back league championships, even with Evan and Cam going down with injury early, they’ve really been here for us and kept the spirit up and just played a big part in this thing,” said Madison coach Jeff Smith when asked about his seniors and their impact.
Coming out early it seemed the Mohawks still had their heads in the senior festivities as the Blazers jumped out to a 15-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. From that point on it was an uphill battle until the Mohawks were able to tie it up at 44 apiece heading into the 4th quarter.
After a battle in the fourth, both teams had several miscues and decided that 4 quarters wasn’t enough as they headed into overtime after a missed game winning attempt by Whiteman.
The first overtime was filled with fouls and free throws as both teams entered the bonus early and had to dig into their depth charts. Well into the first overtime both Whiteman and McMonigle fouled out for the Mohawks causing them to reach into their bench to close out this game.
After a neck and neck first overtime, no team could outlast the other and forced a 2nd overtime. During the 2nd period of overtime the Blazers seemed to be well in control forcing the Mohawks to use the reminder of their timeouts. Out of the timeout however, the Mohawks seemed to have found their spark going on a run that ended in tying the game with only seconds left off of a clutch basket by Durtisch and assist by junior guard Tristan Sipple.
Heading into the third overtime the Mohawks had all the momentum and seemed to be in the driver’s seat. Madison was able to hit some free throws and fend off any run the Blazers attempted to make. The Mohawks were able to close the game out while playing the last two periods without two of their starters.
“There couldn’t have been a better way to end my last game on that court, a great pass by Tristan helped me finish that layup and put us into triple OT and after that my teammates and I just got done what we needed to get done to close out this game,” said Duritsch when asked about what giving his team the spark they needed meant to him.
“They were 17-2 coming into this game and my bench guys really came through when we needed them, very proud of our bench and proud of our kids,” Smith said, mentioning players like junior Jake Phelps, junior Jake Munafo and Duritsch specifically.
The Mohawks improved to 18-3 on the season and will travel to Waynesville Friday night in hopes of clinching the Southwestern Buckeye League title outright and finishing their season on a strong note before beginning their OHSAA tournament run.
The Blazers fell to 17-3 on the season and will travel to Franklin Monroe on Friday night to wrap their regular season up.
Noah Banks is a senior at Madison and will study journalism at the University of Kentucky beginning in the fall.