By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

On Military Appreciation Night, and a night when Kent Roosevelt graduate Adam Hamilton was remembered, it was fitting that when Brian Dugan was called into action, he was ready to deliver.

The Rough Riders’ senior came off the bench for Friday’s game earlier than expected because of foul trouble, but once he entered, he delivered a career-best effort to help lift Roosevelt to its first win of the season, 59-51 over Aurora, in a double-overtime thriller.

Dugan, a 6-foot guard, scored a career-high 16 points and connected on 10-of-15 free throws. He also secured one of the game’s biggest rebounds in the second overtime to help seal the game for the Riders.

“I am so very proud of our entire team, but especially Brian,” Kent Roosevelt head coach Curtis Black said. “He is a senior who has come up through the ranks. From the freshman team, to junior varsity to varsity this year. He got his number called tonight and like the senior leader we know he is, he stepped up and starred in the role we needed from him. He is a culture guy and has worked hard for his opportunity, so you love to see him have a night like tonight.”

And what a night it was for the Riders.

For all six quarters.

In what was a tight contest throughout, Roosevelt found itself tied with Aurora 48-48 after regulation and 51-51 after the first overtime.

In the second overtime, Roosevelt’s defense held Aurora scoreless, while all eight of its points came at the free-throw line, including 4-of-6 from Dugan to help seal the win after Jaden Dennison initially gave the Riders the lead by splitting two sets of free throws that gave the team a 53-51 with 1:44 remaining in the game.

The second split by Dennison included a miss on the second attempt that bounced around before Cyler Foreman was able to corral it by diving on the ground and allowing Black to call a timeout for an extra possession. Dugan then hit  1-of-2 at the line for a 54-51 lead at 1:11, then two more Dugan free throws at 46.6 made it 56-51 Kent Roosevelt after Aurora had missed a 3-point attempt that would have tied the game.

“We were hungry for this win tonight,” Black said. “We have been in a slump — that’s not a mystery. Our goal for tonight was to play with energy, effort and passion, and I think we did that.

“To have the excitement and hunger that builds during the preseason, then to go into the regular season and lose four times in a row to start the year, that hurts,” Black said. “Especially when you think that you let some of those slip away, but we knew that we were going to keep trusting in our guys, and I think that showed in our play tonight.”

Kent Roosevelt had the final quality possessions to end both regulation and the first overtime, with shots to end the game, but came up short and Aurora survived with strong defense to force the extra periods.

Both overtime sessions featured defense and long possessions that ran time off the clock. Aurora shot only 1-for-11 in the two overtimes, missing its final 11 shots in the game after each Pannetti opened the first overtime with a made 3-pointer from the top of the arc.

Roosevelt, on the other hand, shot the ball only three times from the field in the two overtime periods, with Dennison shooting all three. His only make came on a 3-pointer at the beginning of the first overtime that actually was the game-tying answer to Pannetti’s 3 to open the scoring for Aurora in the opening overtime.

All eight of the Riders’ remaining points came at the charity stripe, with four coming from Dugan and two each from Dennison and Gavin Peeps.

Neither team shot particularly well throughout the game, with Aurora hitting on just 20-of-68 shots (29 percent) and Kent Roosevelt making 14-of-44 attempts (32 percent).

The Riders used an extended 3-2/2-3 blended matchup zone throughout the majority of the game, using their length and quickness to limit Aurora’s scoring opportunities.

“I think we have found our niche, that we are a zone team,” Black said. “We have length and we have quickness, and I think we communicate our help better in zone more than we do in man.”

Fittingly, Aurora also used its defense, as well as a collection of second-chance points created from offensive rebounds, to help get back into the game.

Kent Roosevelt dictated the tempo of the game in the early parts of the first quarter, jumping out to a 10-2 lead, but Aurora switched to a frantic, but controlled, trapping defense that shifted the momentum and pace back to the Greenmen and also allowed the team to pull back into the game, trailing 15-9 after one quarter and 27-23 at halftime.

Aurora (1-2 0-2  Suburban League) outscored Roosevelt in the third quarter, 12-7, to take a narrow 35-34 lead into the final eight minutes.

Dennison led all scorers in the game with 23 points. He hit on 6-of-16 from the field and was 9-for-11 from the free-throw line. As a team, Roosevelt was 27-of-37 from the line to Aurora’s 5-of-7. Peeps pulled down 11 rebounds for the Riders (1-4, 1-1)

Aurora placed two players in double-digits for scoring, with Pannetti hitting for 15 points, while Brock Habbyshaw, who played a tremendous game overall, scored 13. Ryan Dwyer grabbed 11 rebounds for the Greenmen.