Lindsay Lane keeps season alive with OT win

Published 4:43 pm Tuesday, February 6, 2018

With 1:23 left in the fourth quarter, it looked like a historic season for the Lindsay Lane Christian boys basketball team would come to a premature end at the hands of cross-town rivals Athens Bible.

But a scoring flurry by Lions star Tommy Murr and a fortuitous technical foul call helped Lindsay Lane get the game to overtime, where the Lions dominated and disposed of the Trojans 76-65 in the semifinals of the Class 1A, Area 15 tournament.

Murr finished with a school-record 57 points, with 24 of them coming in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Only the tournament champion and runner-up advances to next week’s subregional round, which meant the loser of Monday’s game would see its season come to an end.

For the longest time, that team looked to be Lindsay Lane. Athens Bible held a nine-point lead with 1:23 left in the fourth quarter, but a ill-timed foul followed by a technical foul changed the whole completion of the contest.

Murr was fouled, and then an Athens Bible player was called for a technical foul for shoving Murr after the whistle. Murr hit all four free throws, then hit a 3-pointer after Lindsay Lane inbounded the ball.

In just seconds, a nine-point lead was cut to two.

After empty possessions by both teams, Murr hit a shot with 13 seconds left to tie the game at 62 and send it to overtime. The end of regulation seemed to demoralize the Trojans, and Lindsay Lane dominated the extra period, scoring the first five points and going on to cruise to the win.

“It’s very hard to beat a team three times in a season,” Lindsay Lane coach Steve Murr said. “Athens Bible has been kind of up and down this season, but they’ve beaten some good teams. Some of our shooters had an off night, so we had to rely more on Tommy.”

Charlie Morrison added 13 points for Lindsay Lane, while Owen Roberts chipped in with six. They were the only players other than Murr to score for the Lions.

Athens Bible was led by Kenneth Adams with 22 points and Daniel Eison with 21. Isaiah Chandler added 12 for the Trojans.

“This is a great group of guys,” Steve Murr said. “At the end, our team knew what we had to do to get the win.”

Lindsay Lane (25-4) will face tournament host and regular season area champion Decatur Heritage in the championship game Thursday night. The Lions suffered double-digit defeats to the Eagles in the regular season, and Murr hopes the third time will be the charm.

“Decatur Heritage is a really good team and has a lot of weapons,” Murr said. “We don’t have the inside presence they have. Everything has to click for us to be able to beat them.”