Eisenhower survives 3OT duel with Andover Central (+video)

The combination of emotion and adrenaline following Eisenhower’s 88-82 triple-overtime victory over Andover Central on Tuesday night physically affected Eisenhower sophomore point guard Dylan Vincent.

“I’m just still trying to catch my breath,” said Vincent, who scored 31 points and made seven threes, including a last-second three to end the fourth quarter and push the game to overtime.

Eisenhower senior Noah Strunk, who made a slick putback to force the third overtime and had 14 points, was still awestruck.

“It was probably the craziest game I’ve been a part of,” Strunk said. “First off, was it three overtimes? Two buzzer beaters just to tie it. Just a crazy feeling.”

Eisenhower junior forward Matt Pile had a ferocious dunk in the third overtime, which gave the Tigers the lead for good at 80-78.

“Sweetest victory I’ve had in all my years of high school,” said Pile, who had 23 points and 13 rebounds. “I can’t even believe what just… it’s something you don’t even see in movies.”

The win gave Eisenhower (15-1, 7-1 AV-CTL II) a one-game lead over Andover Central (12-4, 6-2) in the league standings.

“You get so excited when it’s finally over,” Eisenhower coach Steve Blue said. “It’s almost like the pressure’s relieved, but at the same time, catching your breath is almost impossible. So many things are going through your head.

“You have just won a triple-overtime game against one of the best teams in the state — definitely one of the best teams in (Class) 4A — and a top team in our league.”

Andover Central, which beat Eisenhower 59-41 on Dec. 15, made 10 of 19 three-pointers through the first three quarters. Junior Cole Taylor made five and Isaac Anthemides had two.

Five Jaguars players made threes, including Darraja Parnell, who scored a game-high 33 points.

Andover Central’s hot shooting helped the Jaguars take a 42-27 lead on a Jordan Birch three with 5:20 remaining in the third quarter.

“We made a lot of plays, they made a lot of plays…,” Andover Central coach Jesse Herrmann said. “You got a point guard as good as they got and a post as good as they got, it’s going to be hard to stop them for 32 minutes, let alone for whatever we played.”

Eisenhower chipped away at Andover Central’s double-digit lead by finally playing what Blue called team basketball.

The Tigers passed the ball more and got it inside to Pile, who is 6-foot-8. He scored nine third-quarter points.

The difference in Eisenhower was dramatic. While the Tigers made 10 of 32 first-half shots, they made 22 of 44 shots the rest of the game.

Andover Central led 57-50 midway through the fourth quarter, but Strunk scored on a putback and Vincent made three three-pointers, including a leaner at the buzzer to force the first overtime.

“He’s just a sophomore and he’s making big plays like that,” Strunk said. “He’s got ice in his veins.”

With Andover Central’s lead at 76-74 in the second overtime, Vincent took an awkward, off-handed three, trying to pick up a foul. He didn’t get the call, but Strunk got the airball and put it in.

“Noah has always kind of been our garbage man,” Blue said. “If you want a weird shot taken, Noah can make it. He’s able to make shots that other people can’t make.”

The shot affected both teams.

“It was the last-second flip-in, they got a lot of momentum going into that,” Herrmann said. “It’s a big deal. We didn’t quite recover from that.”

Then Pile delivered the knockout punch with his dunk for the lead Eisenhower didn’t lose.

“Another nicely drawn-up play that didn’t work,” Blue said. “It was a big dunk, and we were lucky to have some momentum.”

Andover Central — D. Parnell 33, C. Taylor 17, J. Birch 14, I. Anthemides 13, P. Huslig 3, E. Curtis 2

Eisenhower — D. Vincent 31, M. Pile 23, N. Strunk 14, J. Taliaferro 9, T. King 6, S. Brown 5

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 11:40 PM with the headline "Eisenhower survives 3OT duel with Andover Central (+video)."