No. 1 Sioux Falls Roosevelt Survives OT Scare at Lincoln

A tight intra-city battle forced Roosevelt to fight back and compete for 36 minutes instead of 32 at the Lincoln gym Tuesday night in South Dakota Class AA boys basketball.

Top-ranked Roosevelt nipped Lincoln 64-62 in an entertaining and exhilarating overtime game.

It was a great game to watch with lots of action as both teams played well at different parts of the game. The high-scoring Riders (14-0) outscored the Pats (7-6) 4-2 in overtime.

Lee Taylor's Riders had just one scare so far this season from an in-state opponent and that came from Pierre. RHS nipped the Govs 58-56 in December.

Tuesday night was their second close game and the Riders understand how good this can be for the team.

Senior leader Tyler Howard, following the game in locker room before his coach arrived told his teammates, "guys, this only going to make us better moving forward."

His coach agrees, "We were fortunate to get away with a win tonight, character-building wins like this are great, we just need to learn from it," said Taylor.

Roosevelt  started with a 7-2 lead but gave up a 13-7 lead as the Patriots ran off 10 of the games next 12 points to lead 19-18 after one period.

Nermin Krdzalic nailed eight points in the first quarter for Lincoln, who has lost six of their last eight.

Play was tight from there with nine ties after the first quarter and nine lead changes.

The game was tied at 28 at half, as Lincoln had a 46-43 lead going into the final quarter.

The Patriots had a 55-49 lead and saw it vanish as Roosevelt outscored Lincoln in the final moments of the game 11-5 to send it to overtime tied at 60.

Adam Jaros of Lincoln said they played Roosevelt tough with their ball pressure and physical play including challenging shots.

Howard and Jeremiah Clark each had 17 points for Roosevelt who plays O'Gorman Friday night.Clark connected on four three-pointers.

Krdzalic had a team-high 13 points on three beyond the arc for Lincoln, who travels to Watertown Thursday night.Caleb Rector had 11 and Addison Park scoreless in the first-half added 10 points.