DILLON — The Butte Central Maroons and Dillon Beavers played what felt like a pair of playoff games early in the conference season in Dillon on Thursday night, with the Butte Central boys and Dillon girls scrapping out overtime victories.
The Dillon boys fought back from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit to take a three-point lead into the final minute of regulation. The Maroons’ Luke Heaphy responded with an and-one 3-pointer to give Central the lead back, but Butte fouled the Beavers’ Clay Allison in the closing seconds. Allison made one of two free throws to send the game into overtime. Central outscored Dillon 7-3 in the extra period to come away with a 47-43 victory. Heaphy led all scorers with 20 points, with 11 of those coming in the fourth quarter and overtime.
The girls’ game delivered the same intensity and excitement, as Central led Dillon by a slim 18-16 margin heading into the break. Butte led 32-27 late into the fourth quarter, but the home team was able to capitalize on turnovers and push the game into overtime. Brynley Fitzgerald made a pair of free throws to give Dillon a three-point lead with under 10 seconds to play in overtime. She led all scorers with 16 points. Central had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds and used two consecutive timeouts to draw up the perfect play, but turned the ball over on an errant inbounds pass to seal its fate. Dillon won the game, 37-34.
