Patroits Beat Flight in Overtime Thriller
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., Dec. 10 – In an overtime thriller at the Crown Coliseum, the Fayetteville Patriots beat the Huntsville Flight 97-89. The Patriots lost to Huntsville Friday by a bucket 79-78, but came back with a vengeance tonight.
“We gave it an effort tonight,” said Patriots Head Coach Nate “Tiny” Archibald. “Last night, (the loss to the Asheville Altitude 96-94) I thought we gave a better effort and we didn’t win. In overtime, I thought they (Huntsville Flight) were confident that they were going to take the game over at any time, but we made some defensive stops and Terrell (McIntyre) did an excellent job masterminding who should get the ball. (John) Strickland was our guy. Greg (Stempin) got a couple of sneak-ins because they were concentrating on stopping Strickland.”
Strickland poured in 30 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists for the Patriots. He was one of five players in double figures. Stempin had a double double with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Darrell Johns had 14 points and 8 rebounds. McIntyre followed with 13 points and Danny Johnson rounded out the five with 11.
“Tonight we dug in a little bit,” Strickland said. “Down the stretch we wanted it a little bit more than they (Huntsville) did. “They were coasting through the game and as usual the first two or three quarters we didn’t put it all together. But we did in the fourth quarter. When we went into overtime, I felt real good about our chances.”
McIntyre tied the score 79-79 and sent the game into overtime with a steal and a quick lay-up with 20.2 seconds left on the clock. The Flight then called a timeout and Lonnie Harrell shot, but missed a 3-pointer. The Flight rebounded, but time expired.
Tonight’s game did not have the same kind of seesaw effect as Friday’s matchup. The Patriots didn’t come alive until the last five minutes of the fourth quarter and kept the momentum going until the final buzzer sounded at the end of overtime.
At the 4:44 mark in overtime, Johns scored a lay-up to send the Patriots up by two 81-79. Johns was then fouled by Terrance Roberson and Johns hit a free throw uping the score 82-79. Harrell then answered with a 5-foot jump shot and the score was cut to one 82-81. The Patriots turned the heat up a notch, but the Flight was still fighting back. With two minutes left on the clock, the Patriots were up by eight 93-85. At the 1:23 mark, the Patriots’ Johnson hit a 5-foot jumper and the Flight’s Roberson quickly came back and sank a 14-footer making the score 93-87. With 34.2 seconds left on the clock, the Patriots could smell victory. The Flight got one more bucket and the Patriots chalked up four more points making the final score 93-89. “It feels good to be on the other end,” McIntyre said. “You never want to be on the losing end. We feel this (win) is a stepping stone that we can build on and hopefully improve. We still have a lot of work to do.”
On the night, the Patriots shot 46 percent from the field and 63 percent from the charity strip. The Flight, led by Shelly Clark with 18 points, was 38 percent from the field and 78 percent from the free throw line. Other high scorers for the Flight were Harrell and Kelvin Price with 12 a piece, Roberson with 14 followed by John Jackson with 10.
The Fayetteville Patriots have a few days down time before facing its next opponent, the Asheville Altitude. The Patriots will face the Altitude at home December 15 for a 3 p.m. rematch. Lee Scruggs’ 3 pointer with no time remaining in the fourth quarter lifted the Altitude to a 96-94 victory over the Patriots Sunday in Asheville.
