Eastside Bulldogs drop OT thriller

By ROB NUNLEY / Sports Editor for the Southern Standard

Dakota Seamons of the Eastside Bulldogs fights off Aaron Pearson of Manchester Westwood to control the ball during the second half of Tuesday night’s game. (Rob Nunley photo)

It may have looked ugly early, and it may have seemed even uglier late.

But in the end, Monday’s final first-round matchup of the Third Annual Warren Lodge Christmas Tournament lived up to its “main-event” status.

Eastside’s boys team rallied from a 15-point deficit in the final four minutes of regulation play, forcing overtime before falling to Manchester’s Westwood Junior High in a 52-48 thriller.

Trailing 33-27 after three quarters, the Bulldogs went without a point for the first two minutes of the fourth, while the Rockets built a 42-27 lead.

But Logan Seamons knocked down a 3-pointer for Eastside, sparking a 15-0 run that featured four straight free throws, a technical foul against Westwood’s assistant, and back-to-back Tyler Gilley 3-pointers, including a game-tying shot at the 39-second mark that knotted the teams at 42-all.

Blake Welch gave the lead back to the Rockets at the 20-second mark, but Gilley wasn’t out of heroics, and put back a missed basket with seven ticks remaining, sending the game into overtime.

Bryan Najera opened the three-minute extra period with a bucket, and Logan Seamons added a pair of free throws to put the Bulldogs on top 48-44. But Aaron Pearson answered with a basket of his own, and Jordan Lusk, who finished with 20 points to lead all scorers, put in back-to-back shots following Eastside misses to once again put Westwood on top.

Welch added a pair of freebies at the 20-second mark to account for the Rockets’ final margin of victory, and send them into Thursday’s semifinals where they were to face DeKalb County Middle School.

Lusk scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half, and was joined by Cory Keeling with 12 points, while Welch finished with six. Sam Miller had five, Jessie Henderson scored four, Craig Jarrell had three and Pearson had two.

Eastside, which trailed 9-7 at the first quarter’s end and 18-16 at halftime, was led by Dakota Seamons’ 14 points, while Logan Seamons had 13 and Gilley finished with 10 — eight of which came in the final 1:13 of the fourth quarter.

Najera added eight points to the Bulldogs’ tally, while Jesse Norwood chipped in a second-quarter 3-pointer.