The Chillicothe High School Boys Basketball team took on Benton in the second round of the Savannah Invitational on Thursday night. Benton came out on top 50-47 in overtime after a wild finish in regulation.
Benton got out to a 22-17 lead at the halftime break after dominating possession of the ball in the first half with multiple 45+ second possessions. Chillicothe was able to slowly chip away at the deficit in the second half and found themselves trailing 42-40 with less than 30 seconds remaining.
Griff Bonderer drove to the hoop out of a timeout and put up a layup on the right side of the basket that came to a complete stop on the back of the rim. Everybody in the gym was shocked at the improbable nature of what had just happened, and at such a crucial part of the game.
Luckily for Chillicothe they got the ball back on the alternating possession arrow, and James Mathew was able to convert a right-handed hook shot to tie up the game at 42.
Benton then had an opportunity to win the game. After multiple fouls-to-give were given by the Hornets, the Cardinals had an inbounds underneath with 0.4 seconds remaining.
Carson Schmidt got the inbounds pass on the left block knee-high and put in a left-handed layup on the buzzer. But after a 90 second conference between the officials, it was deemed that the shot did not get off in time and we were headed to overtime.
Benton took an early lead in the overtime period and never looked back. They led 50-44 until Mathew hit a three pointer at the buzzer to bring the final score to 50-47.
Mathew led the Hornets in scoring for the second straight game with 15 points. Griff Bonderer added nine points as well.
Carson Schmidt led the way for Benton, finishing with 16 points.
Chillicothe is back in action at 10 am on Saturday in the 7th Place game against Savannah. We will have the game live on KCHI!
