by Ryan Mosher
This basketball season has started quite rough for the Berlin boys. An 0-11 start doesn’t leave anyone feeling good. But slowly and steadily the team has improved, and on Friday night the improvements finally paid off for first year coach Kasson Sauer and his team. Playing at Doane Stuart, the Mountaineers battled back and forth through all four quarters and then two
overtime periods before Berlin emerged victorious, 75-72. Junior Seth Hawk led the charge for the Mountaineers with a career high 36 point in the game. Hawk nailed five three-pointers and sank 11 of 15 free throws, including many down the stretch to help clinch the game.
Down two with ten seconds remaining in the game, Hawk sank two free throws to send the game to overtime and then hit two more free throws to send the game to double overtime. In that period, Dylan Hover went 3 for 4 from the line to help clinch the game.
“Seth stepped up big for us tonight. As captain he controlled the floor vocally, and he hit big shot after big shot from beyond the arc and at the free throw line,” said Coach Sauer of his leading scorer.
Coach Sauer is optimistic about the rest of the season and the determination his players are playing the game with.
“In a season where there have been more downs than ups. This win was surely a culmination of each player’s hard work throughout the year, and their flat out refusal to lose,” Sauer said.
Scott Bamba and Dylan Hover each scored 9 points, and Tyler Bacon and Sakan Sadowski each scored 8 in the team’s win. They play next on Friday at Germantown.