By Mike Whaley
SOUTH PORTLAND, ME – Terrian Wester’s steal and off-balanced layup at the buzzer lifted the NHTI Lynx to a 107-105 overtime win at Southern Maine CC on Wednesday in YSCC men’s basketball action.
With the game tied at 105-all, SMCC had the ball with 9.8 seconds to play. The Seawolves used up 5.1 seconds unable to get the ball past halfcourt, calling timeout with 4.7 seconds to play with the ball still in the backcourt. When they returned, they made a cross-court pass that Wester intercepted. He drove to the basket and put up his shot with his left hand with a second showing. The ball went through the net for the win as time expired.
NHTI remained undefeated at 6-0, while SMCC fell to 5-3, suffering its third straight loss. SMCC is the defending conference champions. Both teams made the USCAA national tournament last winter.
SMCC led by as many as 15 points early in the second half, but NHTI rallied to take a 12-point advantage with 6:13 to go – a 27-point swing. But the SeaWolves came back to tie the game and force OT. The Lynx were deadly from 3-point range, making 26 of 52 triples, while also taking advantage of 28 SMCC turnovers, which led to a 37-9 advantage on points off turnovers.
Dahsan King topped NHTI with 25 points, while Joseph Cantey added 23 and Jonathan Hernandez had 19. Wester scored eight of his 10 points in overtime and led everyone with 14 rebounds and eight assists. He was the only player to play all 45 minutes. Sterling Blakely added 16 points off the bench.
For SMCC, Thomas Martinotti had 21 points, followed by Adam Savage (nine boards) with 19 and Randy Vasquez with 17. All five starters reached double figures.
In the prelim, the SMCC women rolled past NHTI, 86-43, to improve to 6-1. The SeaWolves were led by Hannah Thorsen’s 15 points, the lone SMCC player in double figures.
The Lynx (1-2) were paced by Alexis Christensen with 12 points and Janessa Lofton with 10.