El Dorado played like a team desperate for a victory on Tuesday and fought for an exciting 71-65 overtime win over Texarkana at Wildcat Arena. G’savion Levingston’s lay-up sent the game into overtime, where Isaiah Ramey scored five of the team’s 10 points.
The Wildcats snapped a five-game losing skid and improved to 5-10 overall and 1-2 in conference. The Razorbacks slipped to 8-7, 1-3.
“We needed it bad,” said El Dorado coach Gary Simmons. “The kids were watching film, trying to get prepared. Brendan and Tubbs looked around at everybody and said, ‘Hey, it’s us. We’ve got to fix this. We’ve got to stop this.’”
Levingston scored 15 points off the bench. Jarmel Love scored 10 of his 15 points in the first quarter. Brendan Simmons scored 12 of his 14 points in the second quarter and Ramey scored six of his 11 points in the final minute of regulation and OT.
“That’s pretty balanced. That’s kids playing together and playing hard. You can’t go wrong with that,” said Coach Simmons. “Kids stepped up. It seemed like every quarter somebody stepped up. They all did what they needed to do for each other tonight.”
The Razorbacks led 61-59 after Andre Reed’s free throw with 14.2 seconds left in the game. El Dorado got the ball into the frontcourt and called a timeout with 6.9 seconds remaining.
The ball was inbounded in the corner to Jordan Tubbs, who bounced a pass into the post to Simmons. The ball went through Simmons’ legs and into the hands of Levingston on the opposite block. Levingston powered up a lay-up, tying the game with 4.1 on the clock.
Texarkana did not get off a shot in time, sending the game into OT.
Of the game-tying field goal, Coach Simmons said, “No, it wasn’t for him. They were switching screens. We got to thinking. When Brendan got to the block and got posted up, he pretty much had his way with their guards. So, what we talked about doing is screening down for Tubbs to pop out, which he did. We got the switch we wanted. Tubbs got excited with his pass. Brendan got open so quick and Tubbs tried to rush his pass. Ended up fine. I mean, he threw a bullet at Brendan’s feet, but it bounced. (Levingston) did a great job on the backside getting position and he just went up strong like he did all night and put the ball in the hole.
“(Coach) DeSoto called it a fumblerooski for basketball.”
Texarkana’s Jaylon Randle opened the OT with two free throws. Ramey scored on a drive to tie the game before Tubbs drained a 3-pointer with 1:38 on the clock. Nicholas Watson scored in the lane for the Razorbacks, cutting the deficit to 66-65 with 1:08 remaining.
But Ramey hit both ends of the 1-and-1 with 57.5 left. After Kyron Young missed a 3-pointer for the Razorbacks, Ramey was fouled and hit one free throw. El Dorado finished the game when Ramey hit Levingston with a long pass for an easy bucket.
Ramey, playing the point, controlled the OT for the Wildcats and hit 3-of-4 at the line in the extra period.
“Once we were able to get the lead, they were denying Tubbs and Brendan so hard. We knew Isaiah could take his man off the dribble,” said Coach Simmons. “We just went back to some old Joderrio stuff that we used to run for his brother. We just told him to break him down, get in the lane. If you don’t have anything, pull it back out and run clock. He got fouled two or three times and he hit free throws tonight.
“He played big tonight.”
The win was a team effort but Levingston’s play off the bench stood out for the Wildcats.
“G’savion came off the bench and does what he always does,” Simmons said. “He’s kind of like my Daniel (Gafford) off the bench. He comes off the bench and he’s loose. He’s sat and watched. He knows his role. He plays defense, rebounds and gets stick backs and does it well.”
Love hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored 10 quick points as El Dorado led 13-7 midway in the first. The Razorbacks tied the game 17-17 after one quarter and the Wildcats led 34-32 at the half.
The game was knotted at 44-44 before Tubbs launched a shot from three-quarter court, that was nothing but net at the end of the third quarter. The shot gave the Wildcats a three-point advantage and proved pivotal.
“That was a huge shot. It was a huge shot for Tubbs, too, because he hadn’t hit one, yet,” said Simmons. “We called a timeout and he came out and said, ‘Coach, I’m 0-for-6.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know why you’re counting but your first one is probably going to be a huge one.’ The next one he hit was the halfcourt shot so I am now a prophet.
Tubbs contributed nine points in the game.
Watson scored 18 for Texarkana. Jordan Jones netted 14 and Reed added 12
“Texarkana has already beat Benton, which was a big win for them. They’re a quality basketball team,” said Simmons. “To win it like we won it, I thought we kept our heads about us. I thought there were times our kids could’ve retaliated to some stuff and they didn’t. I thought there was a lot of growing up tonight.
“We appreciate the fans. The Sixth Man was awesome. We couldn’t be happier.”