West Lutheran Boys Basketball Thrilling Win

On Tuesday, February 5, the #9 ranked West Lutheran High School Warriors boys’ varsity beat #4 ranked Heritage Christian Academy 77-75 in overtime in one of their best games of the season. After a West Lutheran turnover and Heritage blocked shot to end regulation, the game went into overtime tied at 62. West Lutheran let a quick 7 point lead become a tied game after a steal and three pointer from Heritage, giving West a timeout with 6.6 seconds left to set up a play to win the game. Senior Dustin Barth took the ball down the sideline and pulled up for a fadeaway 18 footer on the baseline that went in as the buzzer went off to win the game. The West Lutheran students flooded the court following the shot to celebrate the win.

Paul Draeger and Dustin led the Warriors with 22 points and four threes each, and Isaiah Arbogast controlled overtime with eight points. Drew Kleinschmidt led Heritage with 27 points and helped the team stay close with 16-17 shooting from the line to counter West’s 7-16 outing. West dominated the game defensively, forcing 26 turnovers with 15 steals, while only losing the rebounding battle by three even without the help of Andrew Stavig, a great improvement from the -25 difference in the first game against Heritage. West moved into a tie for second place for the season, with a chance to beat Maranatha Christian to move solely into second and set up to have home court advantage until the conference championship, or they could force a tiebreaker with Maranatha Christian for first with help from another Maranatha Christian loss.