Wilde Lake upends No. 14 Long Reach in overtime

Since seeing the Wilde Lake High’s boys basketball schedule months ago, Kain Corkeron had been thinking about the matchup with Long Reach Friday night.

Against the team that eliminated the Wildecats in the Class 3A East playoffs last season, Corkeron delivered in overtime to help Wilde Lake exact some revenge with a 75-70 road victory over the 14th-ranked Lightning in Howard County.

“This game has been circled on my calendar since the beginning of the season,” Corkeron said. “It proves that we can show up in big moments.”

Following a thrilling end to the fourth quarter, Corkeron silenced the raucous crowd by knocking down a 3-pointer to open the 5-minute overtime period, giving the Wildcats a 68-65 lead.

“The belief the guys have in me gave me confidence in overtime to just pull up and hit the shot to get us going,” Corkeron said. “I missed that shot at the end of regulation and they weren’t down on me. They were like ‘That was a good take, it just didn’t go in. You got the next one. “’

Fellow junior Xavier Gilliam helped the Wildcats build on the advantage by taking over in the post. Gilliam scored between a pair of Lightning defenders to make it 70-65, then grabbed the rebound on defense and led the break before finishing to make it 72-65.

Long Reach (10-2, 6-2 Howard) hit a 3-pointer to make it 72-68 but Corkeron and Gilliam closed it out for Wilde Lake at the charity stripe to knock off the 14th-ranked Lightning.

“We came into this game knowing the type of challenge this was going to be,” Gilliam said. “We just wanted to come out here and dominate. Get this dub.”

The Lightning were unable to muster much offense in overtime with just five points. The cold shooting was the story of the second half for Long Reach as they struggled from the perimeter after starting the game hot.

“We had clean shots, we just didn’t knock them down,” said Long Reach coach Andrew Lazzor, whose team has dropped two of three after a 9-0 start. “We settled for some jump shots from the outside and went cold from the outside. We talked afterwards that if we can’t knock down the outside shots - which is going to happen sometimes – we have to be able to set up our offense.”

After a closely-contested first quarter, the Lightning took command of the game in the second quarter with a 13-4 run that gave them an 35-24 lead with 2:45 left in the half.

Wilde Lake coach Jansen McMillian called timeout to regroup his team. The Wildcats responded with a 5-2 run to pull within eight points at halftime.

“Long Reach came out and they punched us,” McMillan said. “In the second half, we responded. Back and forth game – we were able to stay together. We are just trying to get better everyday. We are not a finished product but definitely pleased with how they persevered and stayed together.”

After the break, Wilde Lake (9-3, 6-2 Howard) continued its momentum and took at 42-41 lead at the 4-minute mark of the third period. The Lightning responded with a 3-pointer from guard Christian Dean to retake the lead as the teams stayed traded baskets for the rest of the game.

The final stretch in the fourth quarter was frenzied with each team having a shot to put the game away. The Wildcats gained the lead on a dunk by senior Dylan Gooden at 63-61 at 2:31. Long Reach responded

with a tying basket from forward Dillon McKinney to knot the game at 63.

Wilde Lake again looked to have the game won when they scored to make it 65-63 and Long Reach missed on its following possession.

Dean had other ideas as he picked up a steal at midcourt and scored in transition to time the game at 65 with 30 seconds left in regulation. Each team followed by missing a potential game-winner to send the match to overtime.

After losing leads in two losses to Long Reach last season, McMillian knows Friday’s performance was a huge accomplishment for Wilde Lake.

“We will take this game on the road because last season they felt the pain of disappointment,” McMillan said. “Last year, we came over here twice and built a lead up and we weren’t able to close the game out. So we have been focusing on being able to close games out.”

WILDE LAKE 75, NO. 14 LONG REACH 70 (OT)

Wilde Lake 20 9 19 17 10 – 75

Long Reach 22 15 13 15 5 – 70

Wilde Lake - Nathan Hiteshew 24, Xavier Gilliam 18, Kain Corkeron 17, Dylan Gooden 6, D’Andre Hoskins 6, Ethan Jackson 2, Michael David 2.

Long Reach - Christian Dean 19, Ethan Maokhamphiou 16, RJ Barnes Jr 9, Jayden Saunders 8, Cameron Valentine 8, Michael Reid 6, Charles Etoule Jr 2, Dillon McKinney 2.