Ipswich basketball side win triple overtime thriler at Derbyshire Arrows

Josh Johnson had 44 points in the triple overtime win over the Derbyshire Arrows (Image: RAINYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY)

In front of a raucous home crowd, after trailing by nine at the end of the first quarter, suddenly the home side jumped into life seemingly hitting every shot, while Ipswich calmly, almost casually, stayed in cruise control, looking like a team that knew they had enough to turn it on when they needed to – something they have done before and paid the price for this season.

For Killamarsh, it was the combination of Australian professional Darren Best and Akin Lisk-Carew, both amongst the league’s leading scorers doing damage, as well as Lithuanian Masevic, who seemed to be able to score from anywhere.

For Ipswich, it was the usual combination of seven footer Leigh Greenan and star guard Josh Johnson doing much of the damage, but with captain Tom Sadler experiencing a rare bad shooting day, Moseley stepped up to pick up some of the slack.

Youngster Sam Newman, who has grabbed the opportunity presented by the injury to Dylan Costelloe with two hands also again enjoyed extended playing time, and had the team off the bench with an early dunk on the fast break.

And so it went, Killamarsh were playing out of their skin, Ipswich were playing badly but doing enough to stay in the game.

Then, with ten seconds to play in regulation, the madness began.

With Ipswich up by three, and the Arrows with possession as the shot clock wound down, the Masevix threw up an off balance three pointer over two Ipswich defenders, which somehow dropped and took the game to overtime after a Johnson miss.

In the first session of overtime, both Colin Dockrell and Greenan – who finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds – fouled out and Lisk-Carew made two pressure free throws for the home team to take overtime into a second stanza.

And, with Greenan out of the game, the Arrows looked to have finally grabbed the momentum.

But, after Isaac Omirin had taken a charge to win a crucial extra possession for Ipswich, they found themselves down three with the ball and just seconds left.

With everyone in the crowd expecting human blur Johnson or veteran leader Sadler to take the shot, Moseley stepped up to nail a game-tying triple from the corner and take the game into an incredible third overtime.

And it turned out that Moseley’s shot, emotionally, was the back breaker.

Sadler picked up his fifth foul, but big Tendai Simbai was brought into the game and the presence of Simbai at the defensive end literally shut down the Arrows ability to get to the basket as the giant African collected four rebounds, three blocked shots and six points as Ipswich finally closed the game out, winning eventually by eight points.

Moseley was the hero on the day, finishing with a career high 34 points to go with nine rebounds, while Johnson posted a quite absurd stat line of 44 points, 14 assists, 8 rebounds and 7 assists in 53 minutes of play.

Head coach Nick Drane said: “That’s one of the most crazy games I’ve ever been involved with. Once it went to overtime you had a sense that you were part of something special.

“This is two massive wins in a week, and we are back in the mix. All that matters is the next game – next Sunday is a special day and I want to see that gym packed not only for our semi-final with Worcester, but also for those under 16 boys who play in the National Cup semi final against Solent.”

n This Sunday, for the first time in the club’s 38-year history, Ipswich host a national cup semi-final double header.

At 2pm, the under 16 boys host Solent Kestrels while at 4:30pm the Men face Worcester Wolves with a chance to make the Patrons Cup Final.