Hounds lose in double OT at Saturday matinee

Technically speaking

It’s a program standard. You get a technical you’re done for that game. You get another one and you sit out that game and the following one. It's something you shouldn't have to deal with, but that's the coaches job”

Ryan Wilson, FMHS boys basketball coach

FORT MADISON – It’s an old English idiom that sometimes we reap what we sow.
The Fort Madison Bloodhounds experienced a little of that archaic wisdom Saturday afternoon in a 61-57 double overtime loss to Williamsburg at the Hound Dome.
Fort Madison’s leading scorer Hunter Cresswell, who had 19 points on the night, was benched in a program rule after he received a technical foul for allegedly saying something to Williamsburg’s head coach on the way down the floor with about two minutes left in regulation.
“It’s a program standard. You get a technical, you’re done for that game. You get another one and you sit out that game and the following one. It's something you shouldn't have to deal with, but that's the coach's job,” said head coach Ryan Wilson.
The move put the Hounds in a precarious situation, that got even worse when backup post player Dayton Lamar fouled to start the second OT session, leaving Jackson Guzman to take over in the middle for Fort Madison.
Cresswell was the only player able to score inside points off a stingy Raider man defense. He also drew the attention of most of the interior defense and went to the freethrow line 13 times, converting 10.
Fort Madison held a slim 14-13 advantage after the first period, but only after senior Leif Boeding was fouled on a 3-point attempt with less than a second left. Boeding converted all three freebies to give the Hounds the lead.
Fort Madison started slow, converting just one of its first six shots from the floor. Cresswell would get things unstuck with a 3-ball and then Juan De Gracia Hernandez, the Bloodhounds foreign exchange student from Spain, would get a steal and dish off to Nolan Guzman who would score on a crossover in the lane to tie things up at 10.
The second quarter didn’t heat up for the Hounds, who scored just five points on 2-of-11 shooting, including going 0-3 from beyond the 3-point arc. Williamsburg held a 22-19 lead at the half.
Fort Madison would get behind again in the third, trailing by as much as nine points. Junior Julian Dear hit a 3-pointer in front of the Hounds' fans on the right wing to cut the lead back to four at 35-31, but Derek Weisskopf would answer at the other end with a three to stretch it back to seven 38-31. Cresswell would convert another freethrow and Dear would miss a last-second heave to end the third period 38-23 Williamsburg.
The Raiders then went cold in the fourth, converting on just three shots from the field, two by Weisskopf, both 3-balls, and another three from junior Grant Hocker. The Bloodhounds came out of the break with some intensity as Cresswell went to work inside, getting three straight foul calls on three possessions. He converted five of the six freethrows and then hit a bucket inside under five minutes to get the Hounds within three at 44-41.
Fort Madison’s defense then got two consecutive holds before Dear converted to cut it to one 44-43 with 3:35 left in regulation. The Hounds would get another stop and then Nolan Guzman would swipe a pass in the Hounds’ full court press and feed Boeding off the steal for a bucket and the Hounds first lead since the first quarter.
Hocker would convert again from three-point range to put the Raiders back up by two, but Boeding would answer with a three from the right side after Hernandez pulled the defense in with a nice drive from the top of the key and the resulting assist to Boeding for the bucket.
On the trip down the floor, Cresswell was whistled for the technical foul and Weisskopf made the first one to tie the game at 48, but missed the second with about 1:35 left in the game.
Wilson would call a :30 second time out to regroup the Hounds. On the next possession, Dear would miss a runner in the lane, but Guzman slid over to grab the loose ball in the lane and threw up a 13-footer that rolled off the rim as time expired.
Each team put up just four points in the first overtime session with Guzman and Hernandez scoring for Fort Madison. Kellen Cockrell and Weisskopf scored for the Raiders. Weisskopf led all scorers with 32 points, including 26 in the second half and OT periods.
In the second overtime, Fort Madison would grab a lead with :42 left when Hernandez hit a three from the left baseline for a 57-56 lead, but Williamsburg would score the next five unanswered capped by a couple freethrows from Cockrell with about 10 seconds left in the game.
Wilson said games like this are great for the Hounds' energy and will provide a boost as they work through a tight preholiday schedule.
“(Hernandez) did a great job in the fourth quarter and OT and people may have noticed that I didn’t substitute much in the fourth quarter. We had a group that got us back into that game. They played solid defense and we ran the offense through the pressure when he was in,” Wilson said.
“He understands the game well, passes well. He’s just very solid.”
Hernandez said his grandfather owns a basketball club in Spain, so he’s been exposed to the game since he was about five years old.
“It’s different here. Here, everyone is more athletic, they play better. I think it’s a mental game here and they are more into the game,” he said.
“This was crazy, I was a little confused, but I was happy to be here and helping the team. It was amazing,” he said.
“Everyone seems to be bigger here and jump higher, and they are more physical. It’s different basketball.”
Wilson burned through most of his timeouts in each overtime session, but he said it was more rest than strategy.
“A lot of it was we were running that same group of five for a while. It was just getting them some rest and water,” he said.
“There was some situational stuff, especially late with some switching to a zone defense, but mostly it was to get them some rest.”
He said the double overtime game was just what the Hounds needed.
“It’s great. It’s not going to get any easier going forward this stretch,” Wilson said.
Dear had 14 points for the Hounds and Boeding chipped in with eight on the night. Fort Madison (1-1, 1-0 Southeast Conference) travels to Mt. Pleasant on Friday night and then hosts Pella in Fort Madison Saturday afternoon.
Williamsburg, whose state championship football team featured Weisskopf, improves to 1-0 on the year.