jmetcalfe@delphosherald.com
LIMA — Spencerville’s boys basketball team remembered a year ago.

They lost a district game versus Liberty-Benton due to a miracle shot by the Eagles.

That was well on their collective minds when the teams met up against Thursday night in Division III District semifinal action at Lima Senior High School.

The Bearcats needed to go overtime but there would be no miracle shot as the Bearcats (16-7) knocked off the Eagles (22-2) 53-51.

Spencerville advances to a Saturday night contest (7 p.m. tip) against Lima Central Catholic, a 66-33 destroyer of Carey.

“One difference between this year and last was we didn’t fall behind early; we got off to a good start. We didn’t have to expend so much energy coming back this time,” Spencerville coach Kevin Sensibaugh explained. “We remembered last year and how we lost; we returned a lot of players that were on that team and this is sweet.”

Tied at 45 to start the 4-minute overtime, the Bearcats got a 3-point play by freshman Zach Goecke (18 markers, 5 boards) at the 2:54 mark for a 3-point edge. The Eagles replied with consecutive baskets by Ryan Geise and John Darnall (11 counters) in the next minute to take a 49-48 lead. Dominick Corso (8 markers, 6 boards), saddled with foul trouble, put back an offensive board at 1:28 to give the Bearcats the lead for good. Geise forced a 3-ball at 1:13 and missed, with the Bearcats getting the rebound and Ben Bowers (12 points) was fouled at 1:04. He hit both ends of the bonus for a 3-point margin. Liberty-Benton got within a point when Nathan Garver (20 points, 5 rebounds) put back a miss at 4.5 ticks to go and called timeout at 3.7 ticks to go. The Bearcats had trouble getting the ball inbounds, finally using a long pass to get Goecke fouled with 2.2 ticks to go for two free throws. He hit the second-of-2 for a 2-point edge. With no timeouts left, Liberty-Benton had to try a long pass and this time, the ball was tipped to Bowers as time expired.