Knights victorious in double overtime

Five hours before the Greenbrier and Evans boys basketball teams were scheduled to face off, Evans High School put the final 400 tickets on sale.

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They were gone in 45 minutes.

"There was a line wrapped around the school waiting for them," Evans athletics director and boys basketball coach Kevin Kenny said.

Fans watched two junior varsity games and a girls varsity blowout before the main event at 9 p.m.

Evans' student section spanned almost the entire length of the gym behind the Knights bench and the scorer's table. Greenbrier's students, across the gym in the opposite corner, also came out in full force.

They weren't disappointed.

"Who would have believed we would top last time?" Kenny said. "But we did."

Surpassing the last-second theatrics of a deep buzzer-beating 3-pointer that ended the game in regulation the last time Evans and Greenbrier met, Friday's contest went into double overtime.

Evans survived again with a 54-53 win in a game that saw seven ties, seven lead changes and four starters foul out.

The Knights lost the forward/center combination of Jonathan Nicely and Matt Clark to fouls with more than two minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Evans' bench players came in, but the Knights' height advantage was gone.

"We went to our quickness," Kenny said. "Our smaller lineup is probably our better defensive lineup anyway."

Greenbrier's Anthony Williams fouled out in the final minute of regulation, and Bryan Andrews picked up his fifth foul on a charging call with 18 seconds left in the second overtime.

With the Wolfpack's two top scorers out of the game, Greenbrier still had a chance to tie in the final moments of the second overtime. Greenbrier's Andy Gray stepped to the free throw line with 4.3 seconds left, but he hit only one of two attempts.

The Wolfpack converted on only 14 of 33 free-throw shots and handed Evans its second win over Greenbrier this month.

Knight senior Brandon Durr led all scoring with 17 points, while post player Brandon Skinner came off the bench to add 10 points.

"It's even more spectacular because it was against our rival," Evans senior Brandon Durr said. "Everyone said it was a must-win, like if we lost it was the end of the world."

In reality, Greenbrier's loss didn't even mean the end of the subregion title race. The Wolfpack could still claim first place in the subregion with the right combination of wins and opponents' losses.

For the Knights, the win gave them a clearer path to the subregion title, but the top spot could still go to any one of four teams.

"That's the way it is in this region. Every Tuesday and Friday night the standings are going to change," Kenny said.

Greenbrier and Evans won't face each other again this season unless the two teams meet in the region or state tournaments.