Down by as many as 13 points the Sully Buttes boys basketball team clawed back to tie it at the end of regulation and outscore North Central 10-0 in overtime to notch a 60-50 victory Friday night at Edmund Central school in Roscoe.
Sully Buttes trailed 17-9 after the first quarter and 27-25 at the half thanks to Eli Mercer heating up and scoring 12 points at the midway break. After that, guard Wesley Wittler caught fire and scored 18 points in the second half and overtime to help Sully Buttes pull even. The tying play was designed as a decoy to Wittler with Gavin Colson standing open at the basket to knot it at 50 apiece as regulation time ran out. In overtime, Wittler hit for eight more and the Chargers finish the regular season with a victory to push their record to 9-11.
North Central was led in scoring by sophomore Donovan Nelson, who went off for 16 points, all in the second half, but it wasn’t enough for the Thunder as they fell to 6-14 on the season. Sully Buttes will go into the postseason as the sixth seed, and face the Lower Brule Sioux Tuesday night in Lower Brule. North Central will go in as the eighth seed, and face top seed McLaughlin in Region 6A on Tuesday night.
