MONTICELLO — This group of Logansport athletes likes to play in highly entertaining games and the Berries played a double-overtime classic Saturday at Twin Lakes.
The Berries were able to prevail with a 77-73 win in double OT at Kent Adams Court.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementEli Baldwin scored 25 points and hit the go-ahead shot to give Logansport a 75-73 lead with 4.0 seconds left in the second overtime. It was on a little tear-drop in the paint with the assist going to Quincy Jackson.
“That’s my shot,” Baldwin said. “I always practice that at practice and that’s just what I always do, that right hook. So I just went straight to that.”
The Indians had a chance to tie or take the lead but didn’t corral the inbounds pass cleanly as they turned it over near the sideline. R.J. Clem was fouled with 2.8 seconds left and sank both free throws to give the Berries a four-point lead as they held on.
Clem finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman Marquon Bell scored 10. Logan Lange had nine points, five rebounds, nine assists and five steals. Quincy Jackson had nine points and seven assists. Lucas Jones chipped in four points.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Berries put together a solid game and led 18-14 after one and 33-29 at halftime. They led by 12 late in the third quarter before Ben Pampel hit a 3 to cut the lead to 48-39 entering the fourth.
The Indians came all the way back to tie it at 64 on a basket by Ledger Shaffer to force overtime. The Berries shot 2 of 4 from the foul line in the final 33 seconds to leave the door open.
“When you play a Kent Adams team, they’re gonna be well prepared,” Logansport coach Matt Lange said. “Hey we won, right. That’s the positive. They hit some tough shots in the fourth quarter to get themselves back in it and we had a little trouble capitalizing on some stuff. So I’m happy we won. Anytime you win that’s a good thing.
“The defensive end was a struggle for us. But I thought offensively we played well. We tried some different stuff this week and I think what hurts us is we haven’t played in two weeks and everybody says that’s good for your team. No, it’s not. We need to be playing and keeping them on a court other than practice. So we got three games coming up here in about a week and a half. So we’ll go through those and try to learn more and get ready first for the conference championship and then for the sectional.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Indians took a 68-66 lead in the first overtime, their first lead since the first quarter. But Jackson hit two free throws with 1:13 left to tie the game.
Keaton Miller had a shot that could have given the Indians the lead with just over 30 seconds left but it was off. The Berries held for the final shot but Baldwin’s 3-point attempt was off. Ledger’s three-quarters court shot drew iron and the game went into double OT.
Clem’s dunk gave Logan a 73-70 lead with 42 seconds left. But Austin Robertson tied it with a 3 with 24 seconds left. The Berries then went to Baldwin in the post for the game-winner.
“Eli Baldwin played really well on the offensive end and did some good stuff on the defensive end,” coach Lange said. “R.J. getting in foul trouble early kind of hampered how he could play and get credit to them, they did a nice job with that. On the defensive end he was having little issues because of the foul trouble of guarding 40 (Tate Goyer). He did a great job of attacking.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementGoyer, a 6-foot junior, scored from inside and out and had a double-double of 26 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Indians. Miller had 15 points and Robertson scored 14. Shaffer had nine points and 10 assists. Ethan Need added six points and seven boards.
The Indians took a little too long to get going on offense as their comeback fell just short. Adams has 484 wins in his 38th season and he’s the ninth winningest active coach in Indiana. But he has been snake-bitten against Logansport as he has just one win against them since the 2007-08 season which came the last time the teams met in Monticello that snapped a 13-game losing streak in the series.
Adams has only had four losing seasons and in two of the four losing seasons he won the sectional in 1997 and 2023.
The Indians (7-10) are at risk of having a losing season this year with six games left in the regular season. They could see the Berries (10-6) again at the Class 3A Logansport Sectional.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Berries have struggled at times with the biggest schools on their schedule and at the same time some of the smallest, but they are 4-0 against their sectional field and 5-0 against Class 3A opponents.
“We’re hoping that we’re making the right moves,” coach Lange said. “The good thing is if there’s anything positive about being in close games is that we’re in close games and that bodes well for the sectional. Hopefully we don’t get rattled as we go along and it could be a big plus for us.”
“I would’ve liked it to be been done in four quarters, but I’m still happy we came through,” Baldwin said. “Usually sometimes in the past we’ve been on the other side of it where we lose all our momentum and then we end up with the loss. So this is a good win to have.
“This is definitely good for our mental side of things. We’re gonna practice harder and we’re gonna be ready for the sectional.”
Logan hosts former Sectional 7 and NCC foe Harrison on Thursday. Twin Lakes travels to Lafayette Central Catholic on Thursday.
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