Shot at the buzzer in OT lifts Union City past Dyersburg

Hosting Union City in the first of two Hall of Fame contests this week, the DHS Lady Trojan and Trojan basketball squads both came up on the short end of the scoreboard against the visitors on Tuesday night at DHS.

In the girls contest, Randy Coffman's squad of Lady Trojans struggled on both ends of the floor before ultimately falling to the Lady Tornadoes in the first contest of the night, 62-57.

By far the highlight of the night came when the Trojans and Tornadoes took the floor. The two squads needed an overtime period before a winner could be decided. Union City's Josh Battee tickled the twine from near half court as time expired to lift his squad to a hard-fought, 82-81 victory over the scrappy Trojans.

"That shot to win the game really isn't what beat us tonight," said Trojan head coach Blaine Mahaffey. "Our execution and defense weren't very good tonight, but the kids were trying to make plays and I was proud of the effort. It's disappointing to the kids, but we'll get back after it tomorrow and work to get better."

Leading the way for Dyersburg was Tevin Taylor. The senior finished with 22 points after connecting on 10-of-15 from the field. Winn Decker had an outstanding first game of the season as well, finishing with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while teammate Sam Crocker rounded out the double-figure scoring with 12.

Dyersburg started out of the gate on an adrenaline rush, jumping out to an early 4-0 lead. Though playing with a high amount of energy in front of the home crowd, the rush subsided quicker than Mahaffey would have like.

"The kids really wanted this game pretty bad. We came out with a lot of energy, but I thought we kind of lost it in a hurry instead of maintaining it," he said.

Dyersburg trailed by one, 15-14 at the end of the first quarter, and by two at the end of the first half, 35-33.

In an intense second half, the Trojans and Tornadoes battled back and forth with lead changes as well as momentum changes. Neither squad went ahead by more than four points in the final two quarters, including overtime.

The Trojans looked poised to take the lead in regulation with Decker standing at the free throw line with 12 ticks remaining on the clock and trailing, 75-74. Decker missed the first but made the second to send the game to an extra period, knotted at 75-75.

In overtime, with 2.7 seconds remaining, senior Kody Howard calmly stepped to the line after being fouled and sank two clutch free throws to put the Trojans on top, 81-79.

Unfortunately for Dyersburg, the inbound pass went to Battee near midcourt and the game's leading scorer with 28 points sank his biggest shot of the night as time expired, lifting the Tornadoes to the win.

"The kids were really disappointed, but we can sulk and pout about it or we can go back to work and remember that we don't want to feel that feeling again," added Mahaffey. "I'm happy with the kids. They played hard and we had the opportunity to win the game, but we couldn't close it out."

The Trojans and Lady Trojans host Munford on Friday at DHS. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m.