Lee’s late comeback beats Granby in OT, 78-77

GRANBY – The Wildcats did the unthinkable Thursday night, as no. 7 seed Lee (14-8) survived and advanced with an improbable comeback to beat the no. 2 seed Rams, 78-77, in overtime.

Not only did the ‘Cats withstand a 12-point deficit with six minutes to play, they found unlikely heroes in Kenny Retzel (11 points), who scored five points in the final 2:58 of regulation and added a huge three-pointer at the start of OT, and Nick Sitzer, who took a tip pass from Deaglan Giarolo and scored a bucket underneath to give Lee a 76-73 advantage late in OT.

“It felt good, it felt really good, I have been struggling all year, and finally, it was falling,” Retzel said after the win.

The usual suspects for Lee, Heamon Williams (23 points) and Jake LeProvost (29 points), kept the Wildcats alive for most of the game against the hot-outside shooting Granby team (17-4). The Rams started the game by  knocking down nine first-half three-pointers, yet only led 38-34 at the break.

Lee Head Coach Dan Korte quickly switched to man-to-man defense in the second half, yet the Rams came out launching NBA distance three-pointers and quickly built a 48-34 advantage before LeProvost answered with a trey to cut it to 48-37.

Williams added a move underneath to cut the lead to 57-50 before Granby’s Colton Duxbury finished off the quarter with a layup off a feed from Corey Baker to make it 59-50 after three.

Giarolo opened the fourth with a three-ball from the top of the key to cut the deficit to 59-53, but the Rams answered with a 6-0 run to build the lead up to 65-53 with 6:16 left.

The Wildcats trailed the entire fourth until with 2:25 remaining, Retzel’s three from the wing gave the ‘Cats a 67-66 advantage.

Granby came back with a free throw before Williams knocked down a lefty hook to put Lee back up 69-67.

It stayed that way, until Baker was fouled by Williams going to the basket with 8.3 seconds left then calmly drained both free throws to force OT.

Granby had plenty of chances in OT to withstand Sitzer’s late bucket that put Lee up 76-73; however, Granby’s Jesse Molin’s jumper with 14 seconds left was off the mark, as LeProvost sealed the game with two free throws with 11.8 left to give Lee a 78-75 advantage.

Lee advances to play in the Western Mass. semi-finals in Amherst against St. Joseph’s next week, as the Crusaders upset Mt. Greylock tonight, 64-45.

Posted by Tim Davis on March 1, 2013. Filed under Breaking News,High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry