BILLINGS – Two games, 4.5 hours, five overtimes. Fans definitely got their money’s worth inside Rimrock Auto Arena Saturday night as Hardin and Billings Central put on a show.
Both boys teams are expected to be State A contenders and proved their worth with a back-and-forth, triple-overtime thriller that eventually went to the Bulldogs, 97-87. Both teams had multiple chances to win, but Famous LeftHand and David Evans proved too much for the Rams to keep Hardin perfect on the year at 8-0.
That followed Hardin’s 66-64 double-overtime win in the girls game, in which Bulldogs guard Karissa DuShane hit a tying 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer to keep Hardin alive.
“I was thinking about just taking it in and getting an and-1,” DuShane said after the win, “but then I just threw it up. I thought it was going to come out – it scared me really bad – but then it went in, and I was like ‘Yes!’
“I was really feeling it (Saturday), because a lot of people came to watch and I just wanted to give them a good show, you know?”
Head coach Cindy Farmer knew it was going to be a close game and was thrilled with how her team stayed positive throughout.
“I wrote on the board, ‘Grind it out’ at the very beginning,” said Farmer. “I knew it was going to be a game where it was going to go down to 32 minutes, but it ended up being 40 minutes.
“If you look in their eyes and just believe it, they respond. They are an excellent group of girls.”
