Dukes battle Cavs through 3 OTs, but come up short

PLANO – With standout forward Isaiah Roby on the bench with his fifth foul, Dixon’s team depth was challenged in a triple-overtime game against LaSalle-Peru in the championship game of the Plano Christmas Classic on Wednesday night.

LP’s Christian Soderholm scored the first four points in the third overtime to give the Cavaliers a 76-74 lead, and they never trailed again in a 79-74 win over Dixon. LP improves to 10-0 with the win over the defending tournament champion Dukes – whose only two losses this season are to the Cavs.

“I thought LP played hard and very disciplined, but I want to give my team a lot of credit. They played three overtimes all without the player that people think is the only guy on the team,” Dixon head coach Jason Mead said. “That says a lot about my team, because my team is not one player.”

Kyle LeBlanc (24 points) scored Dixon’s only basket of the third overtime as the Dukes (8-2) were outscored 7-2 in the final bonus period.

With the game tied at 61 in the second overtime, LP hit six of its seven free throw attempts in the final 2 minutes to build a 70-65 lead. But that didn’t last long, and Dixon freshman Beau Bailey came through with a clutch 3-pointer with 32.1 seconds left to tie the game at 72.

“They don’t give up. They compete every time they’re out there,” Mead said of his players. “It’s unfortunate they didn’t win the game. I thought they competed well enough to win. They deserved to win, and they didn’t.”

Dixon held a 56-55 lead in the first overtime after Riley Mehrens (17 points) knocked down a shot with 1:16 to go, but LP’s Ryan Atilano hit a basket with 20.4 seconds to go to send the game into the next bonus period.

In regulation, LP controlled the scoreboard for much of the first half, but Dixon took a 23-21 lead with 3:43 to play in the second quarter and eventually built a 40-34 lead into the fourth quarter. The Dukes couldn’t hold on until the final buzzer, though, as the Cavaliers outscored Dixon 12-6 and tied the game at 46 with 2:15 to go.

Dixon led 50-46 after LeBlanc’s layup with less than 40 seconds to go, but the Dukes received a blow to their lineup when Roby (14 points) fouled out of the game with 32.2 remaining in regulation. LP’s Brady Huebbe knocked in two free throws to tie the game, and Dixon missed two last-second opportunities – a 3 form the left wing and a putback attamept from about 7 feet – to send the game into overtime.

LeBlanc was named to the all-tournament team, while Roby was named the tournament MVP.