You’ve heard the old bromide “they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.”
Defeat had a long ride home in a Grundy Center bus on Monday night, Feb. 7, as Montezuma’s late heroics wrote a whole different ending for a story that for quite a while was headed the other way.
Nik Kotar’s two free throws with 1.1 seconds left to play lifted the Braves to a 57-55 win over the Spartans.
“Overall, it was a good win versus a good Class 2A Grundy Center team,” said Braves Coach Derrick Dengler.
Montezuma trailed by eight points through three quarters, but Kotar and Eddie Burgess had already started re-writing the script.
The Braves’ two 6-4 players scored 27 of Montezuma’s 32 second half points in the comeback victory.
The Braves, still missing quick guard Masin Shearer, made one sloppy pass after another in the second and third quarters, when they went from two points ahead to 8 down.
“I think our turnovers could be attributed to a couple of things,” Dengler said. “The first being that Grundy Center is a good, athletic defensive team and adjusting to their ability was a concern. The second is, since Masin was injured we have had to adjust to guys in different positions without much practice. Hopefully, that’s something we can clean up here over the next week.”
But Kotar took over at point guard and scored off physical drives into the lane and free throws, totaling 18 points in the second half.
Burgess scored nine, on put-backs and 5-for-5 accuracy from the line.
For the game, Kotar totaled 22 points, and Burgess had another monster effort, 17 points and 19 rebounds.
Montezuma led 11-9 after one quarter, and three treys by Gavin Strong had the Braves up 25-24 at halftime.
The Spartans outscored the Braves 20-11 in the third quarter, but the cavalry was starting to raise dust in the distance.
Grundy Center led 52-49 and killed clock, which still had more than two minutes’ worth of ticks left, with a long possession. The Spartans showed patience and passed the ball inside for an easy basket, and Montezuma appeared fried after stepping on the end line on the subsequent in-bounds pass.
The Spartans had to kill just 1:19 with that five-point lead.
Each team made one free throw, then Kotar nailed a trey, cutting the Grundy Center lead to 55-53 with 35.3 seconds left.
The Spartans missed two free throws, then Burgess was fouled under the Grundy Center basket.
He made two free throws to tie it at 55.
The Spartans called a timeout with 9 seconds left. The Braves defended hard on a pass from the wing and an off-balance shot which missed. Grundy Center was called for a foul against Kotar on the rebound.
Kotar made both free throws, and the Braves had a winner, which took their record out to 17-4.
Class 2A Grundy Center left at 14-6.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Grundy Center 9 16 20 11 – 55
Montezuma 11 14 11 21 – 57
MONTEZUMA (57) – Gavin Strong 3-6, 0-0, 4, 9. Nik Kotar 6-15, 7-10, 2, 22. Colton Benson 1-2, 0-0, 1, 2. Owen Cook 3-8, 0-1, 2, 7. Eddie Burgess 5-8, 7-7, 3, 17. Garrett Watts 0-2, 0-0, 1, 0. Maguire De Jong 0-2, 0-2, 3, 0. TOTALS – 18-43, 14-20, 13, 57.
GRUNDY CENTER (55) – TOTALS – 17-38, 15-19, 18, 55.
Line score legend: Field goals made-attempted, free throws made-attempted, personal fouls, total points.
Turnovers: Montezuma 13, Grundy Center 13.
Three-pointers: Montezuma 7-18 (Strong 3-5, Kotar 3-8, Cook 1-3, Burgess 0-1, Watts 0-1); Grundy Center 6-12.
Rebounds: Montezuma 24 (Burgess 19, Kotar 2, Cook 2, Watts 1); Grundy Center 29.
Assists: Montezuma 10 (Burgess 3, Strong 2, Kotar 2, Cook 2, De Jong 1).
Steals: Montezuma 7 (Strong 3, Burgess 2, Cook 1, De Jong 1).
Blocks: Montezuma 3 (Burgess 2, Kotar 1); Grundy Center 3.