Reitz-Mater Dei: Panthers Beats Wildcats in Overtime

By Drew Bruno (Contact)

Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008

Staring at his scorebook, the documentation of what transpired minutes before swept over Reitz basketball coach Michael Adams.

“Incredible,” he murmured.

He had watched as his team erased a 15-point deficit. He saw Clinton Happe enjoy a career night. And even after four quarters, an overtime, and a 67-61 victory against Westside rival Mater Dei, it was still registering.

In the locker room nearby, Adams’ players were still celebrating.

“I mean, rivals, shoot—they probably thought we were going to win this game,” Happe said of the Wildcats. “We were down, heck, we came back and everybody played great tonight.”

None better than the junior guard, who broke free on an inbounds play, catching Kyle Rust’s outlet pass and going in for a layup to go ahead 65-61 and seal the win with 10 seconds left in OT.

While it was Happe’s first two-point field goal of the evening, it was good for his career-high 37th and 38th points, prompting Adams’ reaction when he looked at the scorebook later.

But if Friday night ended with a bang for Reitz (2-2, 2-0 Southern Indiana Athletic Conference), it started with a fizzle. Before a large and vocal crowd, the Panthers fell behind by 10 after one quarter and were down 15 before Happe, who scored his team’s first eight points of the night and sank a three-pointer to pull them within 12, down 36-24 at halftime.

That capped a first-half from his team that Adams called both “awful” and “embarrassing.”

The exception had to be Happe, who already had 17 points. And he was just getting started.

While Mater Dei (2-1, 0-1) made 13 of 22 first-half field goals, coach Kurt Wildeman warned them to be wary of a Reitz bunch that lost all five seniors a year ago.

Read more via TheScore!