Spartans Down Devils in Overtime
GREAT BARRINGTON -- Donyel Daugherty might have had the game of his life, but even his career-high 21 points couldn't prevent the Drury boys' basketball team from dropping its fourth straight game on Thursday night. Monument Mountain's Keefe Gitto scored on a putback off of an offensive rebound with two seconds left, giving the Spartans a 63-61 victory in overtime.Gitto was in the right spot to take advantage of a Cameron Pease missed shot, and a half-court heave by the Blue Devils' Robert Jutras was off the mark, helping Monument improve its overall record to 3-7. Drury, which beat the Spartans by four points two weeks ago, now falls to 5-6 after suffering its fourth straight defeat.
It's ironic that an offensive rebound was what did Jack Racette's team in at the end. According to the Devils' head coach, rebounding was a major issue all game long in Thursday night's loss.
"We got killed off of the boards," he said. "We were down seven points with three minutes left, but we played well to get back into it. We had no business coming back, but they missed foul shots and Jutras made a big three. We went into overtime and they got the last shot, which ended up being an offensive rebound and they ended up putting it in. They just beat us bad off of the offensive board all night long."
Jutras' late 3-pointer capped off an 11-point night for the Drury junior, while senior captains Cody Wemette and Tyler Benoit each chipped in with 10 points apiece. Nobody had a bigger day that Daugherty, however, who hit three triples onto his way to a game-high 21 points.
"He went off in the second quarter," Racette said. "He was lighting it up with his shooting, but we have no inside game whatsoever. We get no inside shots and we live and die from the outside. We tried to press them, but we didn't do it very well. They got some easy looks and their easy looks turned into offensive rebounds, which turned into fouls. They took 35 foul shots."
The Blue Devils will try and snap their four-game losing streak on Tuesday night, when they host Wahconah at 7:30 p.m. Drury beat the Warriors by 14 points way back on December 17th, but Wahconah has some big wins since then, including knocking off previously unbeaten Lenox last week.