D'Shawn Kirby dribbles against Carollton on Tuesday. (Photo by Jimmy Joe Savage)

EAST LIVERPOOL — East Liverpool senior guard Nate Birch went off for 25 points, including 11 in an extra session, to lift the Potter boys’ basketball team to a thrilling 71-69 overtime win over Carrollton in Potter Fieldhouse Tuesday night.

With the triumph, the Potters improved to 2-0 and presented new head coach Kade Reynolds with his first home victory of the season after the Potters had scored a huge road victory over defending Pennsylvania state champ Lincoln Park to open their season last week.

“It’s great and it’s great being back in the field house in front of the Potter faithful,” smiled Reynolds, an East Liverpool grad and former player for the Potters. “It’s not how we drew it up, but it’s always good to get the win.”

“That’s a great first game for us, obviously the outcome could be better, but we were playing a team that’s going to win 17 or 18 games,” said Carrollton head coach Mike Aukerman. “We designed the schedule the way we do and we like to schedule some really tough non-conference opponents. We’ve got them (the Potters) on the schedule and Maysville. We really want to test our guys.”

Birch, one of the seniors on this veteran Potter team which reached the district title game the past two seasons, was on fire, scoring 25 points, including five of the Potters’ 10 three-pointers in the game.

“I’m just trying to go within the flow of the game and when my teammates need me to hit big shots I’m going to do it,” said Birch. “You can tell when I’ve got the (shooting) rhythm.”

“Nate’s just a gamer,” praised Reynolds. “He comes out and he hits big shots when we need him to. These guys know when we need a shot, Nate Birch is the guy we go to.”

East Liverpool placed three players in double figures, led by Birch’s great performance. Potters’ D’Shawn Kirby and Cohen Pease added 17 and 15 points, respectively, while Quintin Conrad finished with eight markers.

“I start five seniors and bring two or three more off the bench,” said Reynolds. “The experience late in games helps but we definitely have to get better, but having seniors is huge in moments like that.”

Carrollton was led by sharpshooting senior guard Braylen Murphy who finished with a game-high 26 points, including six of the Warriors’ 12 triples in the contest. Teammates Jayven Johnson and Andrew Birong added 18 and 17 points, respectively.

East Liverpool held as much as an 12-point (43-31) lead in the game at the 5:38 mark of the third quarter but watched as Carrollton clawed its way back to pull within 53-48 at the end of three and tied things at 59-59 on a layup by Birong with 20 seconds left in regulation as the game went to overtime.

“I thought we did a really good job fighting back,” said Aukerman. “In the second quarter I don’t think we did a great job rotating on defense and in the third quarter when they made a little run too, but I give our guys credit, man, we kept fighting and took some charges. I was really proud of our guys, some seniors stepped up.”

Birch, who tallied 11 in the extra session, scored the first four points of overtime but Carrollton came back to tie things at 63-63 before the Potters took as much as four-point lead again when Kirby hit a free throw and the hosts led 70-66 with 33.3 seconds left. Carrollton drew within one point again on a trey by Murphy, making it 70-69 but Birch stepped to the line and made his 11th point of overtime on a three throw, making it 71-69 and the Potters withstood a last second Carrollton shot in the lane that missed at the buzzer to win it.

“Coming off the Lincoln Park win where we were down 25 (and came back to win) and an overtime win to follow it up, let’s try to space these (thrilling) wins out a little bit,” said Reynolds.

Carrollton (0-1), which is expected to compete with defending Eastern Buckeye Conference champion West Branch for the Eastern Buckeye Conference crown this winter, hit four three-pointers in the first quarter and jumped out to a 20-19 lead over the host Potters after one quarter. Murphy led the Warriors in the stanza with 11 points. Guard Cohen Pease led the Potters in the frame with 10 points.

But East Liverpool came out in the second quarter with a 6-0 run and took a five-point (25-20) lead after a layup by Birch at the 5:18 mark of the period. The Potters went on to outscore the Warriors 19-7 in the quarter and took its largest first half lead of 11 points into the locker room, leading 38-27. Pease led the hosts in the first half with 15 points, including four treys and D’Shawn Kirby had six points.

Notes

¯ Before the varsity game, a special dedication was held honoring the life of the late Kaden M. Davis, an East Liverpool student who loved athletics and all things East Liverpool. The school retired basketball jersey No. 33 in Kaden’s memory and members of his family were in attendance for the ceremony.

¯ The Potters will host arch-rival Beaver Local Friday night.

¯ East Liverpool won the junior varsity game, 49-38.

CA: 20-27-48-59–69

EL: 19-19-5-6-12–71

CARROLLTON SCORING: Tayvion Johnson 1-0-3, Braylen Murphy 8-4-26, Bryce Lonca 0-0-0, Bajornes 0-0-0, Jayven Johnson 4-5-18, Andrew Birong 5-6-17, Everett Brooks 3-0-9, Cook 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 21, 15-25: 69

EAST LIVERPOOL SCORING: Gavin Wright 0-0-0, Blake Adkins 3-0-6, Nate Birch 8-4-25, Quintin Conrad 2-2-8, Owen Fredritz 0-0-0, Julius Jones 0-0-0, D’Shawn Kirby 8-1-17, Cohen Pease 4-4-15 . TEAM TOTALS: 28, 9-15: 71

Three-point goals: Carrollton 12 (Murphy 6, J. Johnson 1, Brooks 3, Birong 1). East Liverpool 12 (Nate Birch 5, Cohen Pease 3, Quintin Conrad 2).

Total fouls: Carrollton 16, East Liverpool 20. Fouled out: none.