ACGC Boys Edge CAM in Double OT, 62-60

The ACGC boys' basketball players have legitimately earned the nickname "cardiac kids" and they showed why with Monday night's 62-60 double overtime win over the CAM (Cumberland-Anita-Massena) Cougars in a game played on the Charger hardcourt.

It was a game that saw ten lead changes and that was tied eight times. The first half was low scoring with neither team shooting well. The Cougars shot 37% for the half, while ACGC shot just 29%.

ACGC took a 13-11 lead at the 4:45 mark in the second period on Miles Kading's score and increased it to 18-11 on Kading's three point play. It was the largest ACGC lead of the game. The Cougars responded with an eight point run to take a 19-18 lead at the break. Ben Marsh's nine points led the Charger scoring at the halftime break.

Following the intermission the visitors had a big quarter as they scored nineteen points to take a 38-30 lead heading into what is normally the final quarter of play. The Chargers shot well during the quarter, making six of twelve shots for 50%, but CAM was even better as it knocked down nine shots out of fourteen tries for 64%

CAM's Colby Rich and Cade Ticknor each scored six points to pace the Cougars in their big quarter. Marsh led the Chargers with six points and Jedd Weinkoetz added four for ACGC.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Kading had been relatively quiet with just five points to his credit. That changed in the fourth frame, as the senior guard tallied twelve points on five of eight shooting. Marsh scored the other five Charger points, while the Charger defense held the Cougars to nine points to put the game into overtime at 47-47.

Overtime number one found neither team able to put the game away and it ended with both teams scoring five points to send the contest into a second overtime at 52-52.

After Jedd Weinkoetz hit a pair of free throws to give the Chargers a 54-52 lead in overtime number two, Joe Kauffman hit a trey to put the Cougars up by a point at 55-54. ACGC responded with a score by Marsh and a minute later Miles Kading added another to give the Chargers a 58-55 lead it would not surrender.

With CAM forced to foul with under a minute to play, freshman Noah Kading and Brock Littler converted on four free throws to increase the lead to 62-55. The Cougars made it interesting by scoring the final five points to reach the final score of 62-60.

"We had a tough time getting outside shots to fall. We got a lot of good looks, but just didn't make many," Charger mentor Lance Kading commented after the win. "Fortunately we were efficient enough when we got in the paint to make up for it. Once again turnover margin was a big key to our success, and we had a number of guys step up and make tree throws at the end of the game."

Marsh and Miles Kading led the Charger scoring with 24 and 18 points respectively. Marsh and Weinkoetz each had seven rebounds. Much of the Charger scoring was done on one on one moves, as the team had just five assists on the night. Marsh came up with three steals.

The Chargers shot 39% overall and were especially effective inside with 20 makes in 30 attempts. By contrast they connected on just 3 of 29 three pointers for just over 10%. The team outscored the Cougars at the free throw line 13-4 as it made 13 of 18 attempts for a respectable 72%.

The win improves the Chargers' season record to 10-3 that includes a 7-2 mark in conference play.

Score by quarter:

CAM 9 10 19 9 5 8--60

ACGC 9 9 12 17 5 10--62

ACGC statistics: (TP-REB-ASTS-STLS) Marsh(26-7-2-3) Solorzano(4-3-1-1) MKading(16-4-3-1) Littler(7-4-1-0) Weinkoetz(6-7-0-0) Bunde(0-1-0-0) NKading(3-2-0-0) Jacobe(0-0-0-0)