Channel Islands Survives Double Overtime to Beat Royal

If Don Salado forgot why he retired from coaching basketball six years ago, he has had five nerve-testing overtimes in the past two games to remind him.

Wednesday, his Channel Islands Raiders battled Royal for two overtimes before emerging with a 60-57 win in a Marmonte League game at Channel Islands.

Channel Islands (13-3 overall, 5-1 in league play) secured the win when Marlowe Durmiendo stole the ball with 12 seconds left. He missed a breakaway layin, but Brian Schimelphing’s rebound basket with nine seconds left kept the Raiders atop the Marmonte League standings.

Wednesday’s win follows a three-overtime loss to Thousand Oaks on Saturday in which a game-tying basket by the Raiders was released just after the buzzer sounded.

“Now I know why I retired,” said Salado, who returned to coaching in 1988. “I’m 57 going on 100.”

The gray hairs began to appear with 1 minute 15 seconds left in regulation, when Royal’s David Tyner (who had 14 points) hit a three-point basket to tie the score, 53-53. Stephane Brown (22 points) answered with a lean-in jumper that gave Channel Islands a 55-53 lead with 59 seconds left, but Royal’s Greg Gray found Kevin Hambly (19 points) for a basket that tied the score, 55-55, with 13 seconds left.

Brown passed to Marlon Jones with two seconds left, but his shot became one of Jared Byrne’s seven blocks. After a timeout, Brown’s 15-foot jump shot rattled in and out at the buzzer.

In the first overtime, the teams traded turnovers and, on an inbounds play underneath Royal’s basket with one second left, Byrne’s tip of a lob pass from Tyner hit the front of the rim.

During the second overtime, Brown’s free throw gave Channel Islands a 56-55 lead with 2:52 left. Byrne hit two free throws to give Royal a 57-56 lead--its first since late in the first half--with 2:08 left.

Schimelphing (12 points) hit two free throws to give Channel Islands a 58-57 lead with 1:43 lead but, after a Royal turnover, Brown missed the front end of a one-and-one with a minute to play.

Royal (11-7, 2-4), which lost for the sixth time in nine games, worked the clock down to 14 seconds and called a timeout to set up a potential game-winning shot. But Tyner’s inbounds pass toward Gray at midcourt was tipped and controlled by Durmiendo, who drove down the court and missed a layin that was followed by Schimelphing’s basket.