If there were one area above all others that has plagued the Perry boys basketball team in the past two seasons it has been — to be charitable — poor shooting from the free throw line.
However, on Thursday it was a pair of foul shots in the waning seconds that lifted Perry (4-17) to a 62-61 non-conference win over visiting Hampton-Dumont-CAL (3-16).
“It would have been easy for us to just fold up and go away after the struggles we have had,” Perry head coach Aaron Lyons said. “Instead, we buckled down and decided to go down fighting, and I loved seeing that kind of effort.”
“Brendan Ivory gave us 35 big points and Chase Archer played very hard and took three charges, which is just great,” he added. “I call Chase a ‘work boot’ type of player, because he doesn’t do anything flashy, he just goes about his business and always plays hard.”
The Bulldogs opened a 22-16 lead after the first quarter of play, but the Bluejays trimmed their deficit to a single point to trail, 35-34, at the intermission.
Perry went on a mini-run late in the third quarter and into the fourth to slowly claim a 56-51 advantage, but H-D-C rallied to knot the game at 56-all and again at 60-all after the hosts threatened to put the game away.
The Jays were a combined 13-of-18 at the stripe when Kato Dougan was fouled with 28 seconds to play. He hit the first of two at the line for a 61-60 lead, with Perry regaining possession seconds later, with Archer fouled as the clock showed six ticks remaining.
Archer missed the first of two at the line, with a timeout called.
“I told him ‘you are going to make this one and we are going to win’ and it happened, but not exactly as I had expected or wanted,” Lyons said.
Archer did indeed convert his second attempt for a 62-60 Perry lead, but the Jays inexplicably fouled Carson Miller with 1.1 seconds left. Miller hit the first shot to cut the score to 62-61, but his second attempt was inches off the mark, allowing Perry to escape with the win.
Ivory’s 35 was a game-high, with Archer adding eight points and Dougan six for Perry. Five points from Keghan West and four each from Jordan Long and June Reisberg completed the Bluejay scoring sheet.
Jordan Severs had 20 points, Drew Uhlenhopp 17 and Jace Spurgeon 10 for H-D-C. Mario De La Cruz tallied six points, Miller five and Wyatt Sutter three.
Perry will open postseason play against host DC-G Monday. ADM faces North Polk in the 6:30 p.m. game, with the Bluejay vs. Mustang contest to follow.
