With the student section packed full of loyal fans from both Langham Creek and Cypress Springs, the stage was set for an intense 17-5A match up between the two backyard rivals. But in a wild, bizarre game that went into overtime, it was the Lobos who walked away with a 72-77 win over the area-ranked Panthers Tuesday night.

“It’s beyond huge,” Langham Creek coach Charles Ament said of the win. “We struggled a lot and overcame a lot of adversity up to this point. They (Cy Springs) have a quality player in (Erik) Williams injured and Phillip McDonald is sick, but I can’t be more proud of our team. It is a huge step in our program.”

Cy Springs lost its second straight district game.

When breaking the game down in quarters, is not evident of what team had the momentum or advantage. The Lobos led after one quarter, but the Panthers roared back to take a six-point advantage at halftime.

In the first half it was the Panthers’ Ernest Wafer (14) and the Lobos’ Tommy Tyler (13) leading the way in points for their respective teams. Ament knew that adjustments had to be made in order to pull out the win.

“The thing is we kind of deviated from what we normally do,” Ament said. “Sometimes when we play hard and play excited, we get out of control a little bit. We had to calm them down because we have been in this atmosphere too many times.”

And the players responded. Langham Creek came out strong and scored 8 unanswered points to regain the lead. Tyler and Micah Chester led the surge. But the Panthers did not roll over.

Wafer dropped some key 3-point baskets to keep the game close, but Chester nailed the buzzer-beater to take the lead heading into the final quarter. From then on it was bucket for bucket. Late in the game, the Panthers had a two-point lead with less than 5 seconds remaining on the clock.

A foul was committed sending the Lobos’ Tyler to the line in an attempt to tie the game up. He knocked them both down to force overtime.

“We work on that a lot because free throws win games,” said Tyler, who successfully made 12 free throws.

The Lobos stepped their defense up holding the Panthers to eight points in overtime. Along with hustle, Ament said one of the keys to success was working in a game plan knowing that Cy Springs would be with out Williams.

 “The game plan was a lot different because he (Williams) just erases a lot of things in the paint,” Ament said. “Our plan was to attack McDonald and get him into foul trouble and then take our chances after that.”

Tyler led all scorers for the game with 29 points. Chester dropped 19 points while Jeff Greene contributed 13.

For the Panthers, Jon Smith led with 23 points, Daquan Williams scored 17 points, and Wafer had 16.

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