OTIS — The Class 1A Division-II state tournament basketball championship game was decided by three-point plays — in double overtime.
With the game knotted at 48, the Frankfort High School boys were able to secure a 62-53 victory over Otis-Bison after the second overtime period.
This was the top finish for the boys’ basketball team in Otis-Bison’s school history, overstepping last year’s third-place finish at the state tourney.
“We’ll look back and linger on and say ‘Hey, we did some good things,’ but right now it just hurts,” Otis-Bison head coach Alan Clark said.
Clark said that it was a battle from the very beginning as neither team led by more than three points until the final minutes of the first half.
“You can go all the way back to the first quarter,” Clark said. “There are plays that they didn’t make or we didn’t make. They jammed the ball or we didn’t get a rebound. You go through the whole game, and every play is critical, obviously. They just ended up putting more points on the board than we did.”
The Wildcats opened up the second overtime with a layup and a chance for a three-point play. Jacob Broxterman missed the free throw, but gave Frankfort a 50-48 lead.
The Cougars answered with a three-point play from 6-foot-4 senior post player Brandon Pechanec to make it 51-50 Otis-Bison.
It was the fifth foul for Frankfort’s 6-4 answer for Pechanec, Jacob Broxterman, who finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double.
Jonathon Keating scored a layup and missed the free throw that followed, making it 52-51.
Pechanec missed a layup on the following possession and fouled Alex Surdez chasing the rebound.
Surdez made both free throws to make it 54-51 as Pechanec fouled out of the game.
Tyler Maier scored on a layup to close the gap to 54-53.
Keating got another chance at a three-point play and sank the free throw to make it 57-53 with 54 seconds remaining.
“We had 55 (Broxterman) fouled out first, and I thought that was a very big play to get him fouled out,” Clark said. “I thought that we could take advantage of that, but we had one possession down there that we let (Keating) catch it underneath and scored. That was kind of the turning point right there.”
With Frankfort double-teaming Trevor Keller, Patrick Piper missed a couple 3-point tries and the Wildcats made enough free throws to keep Otis-Bison from drawing close as time ran out.
“They took away Dylan and Trevor there at the end after Brandon fouled out,” Clark said. “They took them away. We just didn’t make enough plays. I look at the score, yeah, it’s nine points, but it’s double overtime, so it’s one point, one play somewhere in the game.”
Pechanec narrowly missed a double-double with a team-leading 21 points and eight rebounds.
“Brandon’s a warrior,” Clark said. “He really plays hard like they all do. Broxterman’s a tough matchup there, so ...”
Tied at 44 at the end of regulation, Keating opened the overtime period with a layup under the basket for Frankfort.
Dylan Wissman followed that up with a layup for Otis-Bison and each team missed chances to take advantage of the other team’s turnovers.
Keating scored another two points, but Trevor Keller answered with a short jumper to tie the game at 48.
Keating finished with a double-double for the Wildcats, scoring 12 points and grabbing 12 boards.
Keller dropped in a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to drive the game into overtime.
Keller finished with 10 points.
Frankfort led throughout most of the second half and was up 38-35 with less than six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Broxerman hit a pair of free throws to put the Wildcats ahead 38-31 with 5:28 remaining.
Keller followed that was a 3-pointer with 5:28 on the clock.
Lucas Adams hit both free throws on the next Frankfort possession and Wissman sank 1 of 2 in the following Cougars possession to make it a 42-39 Wildcats advantage with 1:10 left in the game.
Wissman finished with 13 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Adams hit 1 of 2 free throws as the Cougars were forced to foul.
Pechanec dropped in a layup to close the gap to 42-41 with 43.5 seconds remaining.
Adams made two more free throws and then Keller sank his 3-pointer.
Frankfort began the third quarter with a three-point play from Broxerman, Sparking an 8-1 run that ended with an Alex Surdez field goal and the Wildcats leading 28-25.
A couple of quick 4-0 runs and the Wildcats held a 36-31 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Class 1A Division-II
State tournament

At Hays
Gross Memorial Coliseum

BOYS

Championship game

Saturday

Frankfort 62, Otis-Bison 53
OTIS-BISON (18-8)
     Trevor Keller 4-11 0-0 10, Dylan Wissman 5-13 3-6 13, Zach Stejskal 0-1 0-0 0, Patrick Piper 2-6 0-0 5, Brandon Pechanec 9-14 3-4 21, Tyler Maier 2-2 0-0 4, Justus Bartonek 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-47 6-10 53.
FRANKFORT (22-5)
     Alex Surdez 1-7 2-2 5, Calahan Brown 5-8 0-0 11, Lucas Adams 2-6 7-10 12, Jonathan Keating 5-8 2-5 12, Jacob Broxterman 8-17 5-6 21, Brett Kenworthy 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 21-46 17-25 62.
OBHS       8  16   7  13  4   5  —  53 
FHS          9  11  16  8   4  14 —  62
     Three-point goals — Otis-Bison 3-11 (Keller 2-5, Piper 1-5, Stejskal 0-1); Frankfort 3-12 (Surdez 1-5, Adams 1-4, Brown 1-3). Rebounds — Otis-Bison 27 (Pechanec 8); Frankfort 31 (Keating 12). Assists — Otis-Bison 10 (Wissman 4); Frankfort 16 (Surdez 4, Brown 4). Turnovers — Otis-Bison 11; Frankfort 13. Fouled out — Otis-Bison (Pechanec, Wissman); Frankfort (Broxterman). Total fouls — Otis-Bison 24; Frankfort 13.