Box Score The Neosho County Panthers entered their game with the Labette Cardinals having won seven in a row in the series. Saturday (Jan. 19) night's game featured 10 ties, 15, lead changes, and 2 overtimes before Labette finally ended the streak with a 74-71 win.
 
Labette started the game on an 8-2 run, the 6 point lead the largest of the game for either team. The Panthers would finally take their first lead of the game after D'Avonte Garland scored 8 straight points to put them on top 24-22 with 4:58 to go in the first.
 
The Panthers would extend the lead to 5 with a pair of free throws from Jake Stoppel, but Labette would battle back to tie it up with :20 seconds left. Kegan Oyugi's driving layup as the first half ended would send the Panthers to the break clinging to a 2 point lead.
 
For much of the second half the Panthers were within striking distance, but could never get over the hump as the Cardinals clung to a 3 point lead. The final 5 minutes of regulation the teams would trade buckets as neither team could extend the lead past 1 point. That would change with 1:19 to play when Garland was fouled in front of the Panther's bench while shooting a three. He would connect on all three free throws to give Neosho a 2 point lead.
 
The Panthers would hold on defense and get the ball back with 40 seconds to go still holding on to the 2 point lead. It was Labette's Travis Gantt that had the biggest play in regulation when he stole the ball in the back court and his layup tied it at 59 with :39 seconds left.
 
The Panthers would run the clock down to 5 seconds before D'Marco Smith's 3 point attempt was offline. Mark Gray tracked down the long rebound and his turn around 3 point attempt at the buzzer connected, but he was unable to get it off in time sending the game to overtime.
 
A first 40 minutes were a very tight back and forth contest, and overtime took the intensity to a whole new level. Neosho trailed for almost the entire first overtime period, and was facing an almost impossible task as Labette held the ball with 27 seconds on the game clock and 20 on the shot clock forcing a Labette timeout. Out of the timeout the Cardinals would get a shot off right before the shot clock expired but pulled down an offensive rebound. As they tried to kick it out to run time off the clock they nearly turned it over before Labette head coach Jonathan Raney called a timeout with 2.2 seconds left on the clock leading 67-65.
 
The Panthers would need a miracle with next to no time on the clock and only 2.2 left to play, and that would be exactly what they got. Needing a steal on the inbounds pass, it was Jake Stoppel that came up with the big play and Jeremy Coombs immediately called a timeout. The Panthers still faced an uphill battle as they only had 2.0 seconds left on the clock trailing by 2.
 
On the ensuing inbounds play, the Cardinals would foul D'Avonte Garland and no time would run off the clock. Garland calmly stepped to the line and knocked in both free throws to tie the game at 67 and send it to a second overtime.
 
The second overtime would see Labette once again jump out to an early lead. With 6.4 seconds left and the Panthers trailing 73-68 Garland would once again come up big when he tracked down on offensive rebound and knocked down his fourth 3 of the game to pull the Panthers within two.
 
After fouling on the inbounds play, Labette would miss their first attempt from the line before connecting on the second. Jake Stoppel would get a good look at the basket as time expired, but his 3 point attempt would not connect.
 
D'Avonte Garland scored a career high 19 points to lead the Panthers. Jake Stoppel added 12 points and 8 rebounds for Neosho County while Mark Gray and D'Marco Smith each finished with 10.
 
Neosho County falls to 8-9 overall and 1-3 in Jayhawk Conference play with the loss. The Panthers will have to bounce back quickly from the tough double overtime loss. They will be back in action Monday (Jan. 21) when the travel to Kansas City Kansas Community College to kick off a grueling week that includes 3 games in 6 days.