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Sports

Instant Classic: Chatham Falls to Madison in Quadruple Overtime

Ballard, Conroy each score 23 in losing effort.

Chatham boys basketball coach Todd Ervin said his team would practice Thursday morning. But after playing 48 minutes of tense basketball against a close rival, he might be forgiven for going a little bit easy on his players.

The Cougars fell to Madison, 70-67, in a hard-fought, quadruple-overtime classic Wednesday night at Chatham High School.

Chris Conroy and Brian Ballard each scored 23 points for Chatham (13-9, 6-6 NJAC-Independence), who beat the Dodgers by two points Saturday in the Morris County Tournament quarterfinals.

Chatham had opportunities to pull away in the fourth quarter and each of the four overtimes. But the Cougars never could make the crucial shot to clinch a second dramatic win over their rivals in four days.

"We had our chances," said Chatham coach Todd Ervin. "We made a couple bad decisions when we had a chance to win. And then in the last overtime, they made the better decisions and the bigger plays."

Madison's Aaron Fant (16 points) made a turnaround seven-foot jumper with 32 seconds left in the fourth overtime to give the Dodgers (18-2, 10-1) the lead for the good, 67-65.

Jonathan Berntsen was called for a travel on Chatham's ensuing possession, and Madison was able to clinch a hard-fought victory with three free throws before Berntsen made a layup at the buzzer.

"We know them, they know us," said Madison coach Bill Librera. "It's more than a border war, more than a local rivalry. Every day we're practicing against a team like them."

In a back-and-forth game that saw the lead change hands 16 times, the exceptional guard play of Conroy and Ballard nearly lifted the Cougars to another win.

Conroy, the senior guard whose two free throws Saturday with 5.5 seconds to play lifted Chatham to a Morris County Tournament semifinal date with Delbarton this Saturday, scored 14 first-half points. His buzzer-beating three-pointer gave the Cougars a 26-23 halftime lead.

Conroy scored seven of Chatham's 19 points over the four overtime periods and had a chance to repeat his previous late-game heroics at the end of the first extra session.

The senior drove to the hoop and drew contact and a foul call with 4.5 seconds left with the score tied, 54-54. But he missed both—the second rattling in and out—and Madison grabbed the rebound. Robbie Savacool's desperation three missed well wide to send the game to a second overtime.

"He played great," Ervin said. "He missed a couple free throws, but he does so much for us. I don't know where we'd be without him."

Ballard, according to Ervin, played by far his best game of the year, knocking down big shot after big shot. He scored 14 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and the overtimes, including a three-point play to open the final extra session, which gave Chatham a 64-61 lead.

"He played really well for us," Ervin said. "He hurt his ankle earlier in the season. I think he's totally back, physically, and that's going to be huge for us going forward."

But his biggest shot, a three-pointer from the top of the key with 35 seconds left in the fourth quarter, sent the game to overtime.

On Madison's last possession of the fourth quarter, Fant's last-second three-pointer bounced off the rim. Dodger guard Jake Meister rebounded the ball, though, and he appeared to be fouled going up for a game-winning layup as time expired.

But after the referees conferred, they determined that the foul occurred on the floor. It was Chatham's fifth team foul, meaning no shots were awarded to Madison and the fourth quarter ended tied.

Chatham led for the majority of each overtime period, but had its best chance to win in the first.

Fant's layup-and-foul with 28.4 seconds left tied the game at 54-54, but Fant missed the go-ahead free throw. Conroy's two missed free throws on the next possession sent the game went to double overtime.

Conroy gave Chatham a two-point lead in the second OT, his driving layup leading to a three-point play and a 57-55 lead with 2:33 left. But Meister's driving layup with 54 seconds left in the second OT tied it at 57-57, but the Madison guard's potential game-winner rimmed out in the final seconds of that period.

Ballard knocked down a 3-pointer to give Chatham a four-point lead in overtime No. 3, but Fant scored four straight points to tie it with 1:25 to play.

The Cougars ran down nearly all of that time, searching for the final shot, but all they could get was a tough, contested 3-pointer, taken by Ballard. It bounced off the rim, sending the game to a fourth overtime.

"We played good defense the whole night," Ervin said. "I was very happy. We just didn't do enough offensively to get it done tonight, we had some bad turnovers, some poor decisions."

Ballard's three-point play and a Conroy free throw gave Chatham its final lead, 65-63, until Fant tied the game with two foul shots with 1:19 to play. The Madison point guard gave the Dodgers the lead for good 47 seconds later.

Madison swept the regular-season series between the two teams - also winning, 49-47, in Madison Jan. 14. But the Chatham student section was well aware of the importance of Saturday's win, chanting "How about counties?" as Dodger fans celebrated their victory.

 

SCORING SUMMARY
Madison   13  10  10  15  6  3  4  9  -  70
Chatham    9   17   8   14  6  3  4  6  -  67

INDIVIDUAL SCORING

MAD- Matt McHale 19, Aaron Fant 16, Jake Meister 13, Robbie Savacool 7, Matt Gilbert 6, Eddie McAndrew 4, Mike Haughey 3, Justin Goodwin 2
CHAT- Brian Ballard 23, Chris Conroy 23, Kevin Giannattasio 9, Brendan Damodaran 5, Adam Parisella 3, Casey Gill 2, Jonathan Berntsen 2

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