Royal Valley RHS Record Setter

Royal Valley-Rossville 4-OT thriller one for the record books

Panther girls' 98-94 win sets state record for most points in game
Posted: March 2, 2016 - 1:47pm
By Brent Maycock

brent.maycock@cjonline.com

When Corey Katzer took over the Royal Valley girls basketball program last year, one of his points of emphasis was increasing the Panthers’ scoring.

“I wanted to run an up-tempo-paced offense with the opportunity to put points on the board,” Katzer said.

But never in his wildest dreams did he imagine Royal Valley would put itself in the record books.

Royal Valley and Rossville waged a game for the ages to open Class 3A sub-state play Tuesday night in Rossville. Regulation and three overtimes couldn’t decide it.

Instead, it took four overtimes for Royal Valley to pull out a wild 98-94 victory and advance to Friday’s sub-state semifinals.

“I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of anything like that in the 16 years I’ve been coaching,” Katzer said. “It was just a giant roller-coaster of ups and downs. You’d think you have it salted away and they make a run back. They go up by five or six and you’re hanging on by your fingernails, and ... oh, I don’t know how to describe it other than it was a giant teeter-totter.”

It was also a record-setting night with the 192 total points scored in the game breaking the old state record of 185 set in 1998 when Beloit-St. John’s topped Lucas-Luray 96-89 in overtime. Rossville’s 94 points are the most scored by a losing team in state history as well.

While the victory, which earned the Panthers (9-12) a shot at 3A No. 1 and unbeaten Silver Lake in Friday’s semifinals, was a big deal, Katzer said the record was just as exciting for his team, which learned about it on the ride back to Hoyt.

“They got word of it about five minutes into the bus ride home,” Katzer said. “It got really loud, really excited and turned into a party atmosphere really quickly.”

Royal Valley was in position to avoid all the drama, holding a seven-point lead with just more than a minute to play in regulation. But Rossville’s full-court press produced a quick 6-0 run and the Bulldawgs were able to force overtime tied 59-59.

Then things got crazy. Rossville rallied from a six-point deficit in the first overtime to force a second OT on Lauren Steckel’s 3-pointer with six seconds left to tie it 66-66. After Royal Valley took another lead in the second overtime, Bulldawg Heidi Nitsch hit a late 3-pointer to send it to a third overtime at 76-76.

In the third extra period, Rossville pulled ahead only to see Panther Tamo Thomas make her own game-tying 3-pointer to force the fourth overtime at 87-87. Royal Valley finally put the Bulldawgs away with an 11-7 edge for the victory.

Kate Hanson scored a career-high 29 for the Panthers, while Thomas added 25 and Lexi Baker had 19. Rossville countered with a career-best 30 points from Nitsch and 28 from Amanda Hill.

“In a game like last night, unfortunately there had to be a winner and a loser,” Katzer said. “Really, both teams just laid everything on the line. Rossville played one heck of a game. Between Nitsch and Hill, you can’t ask any more from two kids than what they did. And the same thing with our two big scorers, Tamo and Kate.