TURNER — Seniors Sawyer Hathaway and Brett Coburn came up big for the Leavitt boys basketball team in its 55-51 overtime victory over Yarmouth.
“They grabbed some key boards, made some key plays on defense, and made some big baskets, too,” Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said.
The pair were the only two players to score in overtime. Hathaway scored two of his game-high 22 points with about 30 seconds remaining in the extra session to give the Hornets a 53-51 lead.
Coburn, who finished with 16 points, added a putback bucket off a missed Hathaway free throw attempt with about 10 seconds remaining to seal the game.
Yarmouth coach Ilunga Mutombo said the Clippers are learning to close out games.
“We are taking out (of this game) finishing stronger, and being more aggressive on specific things, getting the right rotations and, no matter how tough things get, we have to keep competing,” Mutombo said. “That’s what we are doing as a team, learning about ourselves.”
Mutombo said Yarmouth was much more aggressive on defense in the first half than in the second half and overtime.
Evan Hamm paced the Clippers (4-4) with 15 points, while Stevie Walsh and Justin Dawes had 12 points apiece.
“We share the ball well, and we trust each other,” Mutombo said. “We are building that trust every single day. I believe having a balanced scoresheet means everybody was able to participate and we worked together.”
Leavitt (3-6) trailed for the entire second half but started to chip away late in the third quarter when Hathaway made an off-balanced 3-pointer at the buzzer cut the deficit to 41-37.
“I completely messed up the spin coming off the hand,” Sawyer Hathaway said. “I just threw it up because I saw the time on the scoreboard, and somehow it went in. You don’t really practice those, but when they go in, they feel real good.”
Hathaway and Coburn combined for 12 of the Hornets’ 14 points in the fourth quarter as Leavitt tied the game at 51-51 and forced overtime.
Having both players clicking, Sawyer Hathaway said, forced Yarmouth to make a choice about which one to focus on defensively.
“I feel like me and Brett are two pretty good scorers and we work well together,” Sawyer Hathaway said. “So just for me and him being able to go back and forth a little bit so the defense can home in on me or him, that was good.”
Mike Hathaway said that while Sawyer and Coburn were the main point-getters in the fourth quarter, other players also made important plays to help the Hornets get extra possessions.
“The other guys around them, like Nick Morin, had a bunch of good rebounds at the end,” Michael said. “Sawyer Bubier was clutch, kind of all over the floor in different scenarios.”
The Hornets started the game at the free throw line after Yarmouth received a pregame technical foul for not having all its players’ names in the scorebook. Sawyer Hathaway hit both shots to take the early lead.
After Leavitt inbounded the ball following the free throws, Hathaway went back to the line was fouled on a drive to the basket and went back to the line, where he extended the lead to 4-0. He then hit a trey on the Hornets’ next possession for a 7-0 lead.
“We had a game plan, they went under some screens to start and we had a little action for that,” Sawyer Hathaway said. “My teammates had some good screens to open the game so I can to get to the paint and that little pop 3. It was really good to start off that way.”
Leavitt’s lead reached 10-2 before the Clippers went on a 6-0 run to get within two points.
Hamm scored four quick points early in the second quarter to give Yarmouth its first lead, 16-15.
The Clippers went into halftime with a 26-21 advantage.
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