Union City and Jalen Boes were in no rush to head home Wednesday, extending its makeup game at Centreville to two overtimes in a 77-72 victory.
Matt Clementz drives to the basket against Union City.
(Photo by Wes Morgan)
Boes’ slashing attack in the extra frames gave the Chargers (3-5) the spark they needed to steal one from the Bulldogs (4-6), which led 29-25 at halftime. Boes finished with 31 points, 14 of which were scored at the foul line. Lucas Vallaro added 21 points for Union City.
Do-it-all senior Matt Clementz did everything he could to swing the game in Centreville’s favor, registering 27 points, 15 rebounds and four assists. Junior point guard DeMarco Taylor poured in 20 points and Jon Peckinpaugh was the third Centreville player to reach double figures after posting 12 points.
“Another strong game by the boys,” Bulldogs coach Corey Smith said. “However, we are struggling to get over the hump at the end of games.”
Centreville built a 12-point lead in the third quarter before Union City started slowly chipping away.
“Trying to contain [Boes] was like trying to stop water from going through cracks,” Smith said.
The Chargers erased the deficit completely with a 20-15 edge in the fourth quarter. They tied the game again at the end of the first overtime after Centreville raced out to the first six points. Union City then outscored the Bulldogs 7-2 to get out of town with the comeback victory.
“We couldn’t stop [Boes],” Clementz said. “He just kept driving it into us and creating fouls.”
Union City is probably saying the same thing about Clementz.
“I came out starting to feel a little hot and took advantage of what the defense gave me,” he said. “But I couldn’t do it without the good assists my teammates gave me.”
Peckinpaugh and Chase Alexander both finished with three assists. Alexander added three points, Eli Schwartz finished with four, and Chase Lebarre, Alex Stafford and Jordan Gest each tallied two.