For what might have been the ninth or 10th time since the extra session began, Dustin Sullivan allowed himself one more peek at the scoreboard, let out a deep breath and managed to smile.
Just seconds later, the Van Buren County coach's team had finished off a successful debut in the annual Times Free Press Best of Preps basketball tournament, a thrilling 75-69 overtime win against Tyner on Thursday at Chattanooga State.
Senior Caden Mills backed up his reputation as one of the mid-state's best with 41 points in an up-and-down contest in which the lead changed seven times in the fourth quarter and there were a barrage of big shots by both sides before the Eagles finally took control in overtime.
Tyner's Solomon Bridgemon, left, Jalen Bowens (3) reach for the ball as Van Buren's Caden Mills (23) is fouled by a block charged to Tyner's Michael Little, lower right, in second half action of Thursday's Best of Preps basketball at Chattanooga State. Mills was triple-teamed on the play but scored 41-points for a 75-69, Van Buren victory."It's really good for us," said a smiling Sullivan, whose Eagles will face tournament favorite McCallie in a semifinal at 5:30 p.m. today. "The reason we wanted to come over here was to put ourselves in those types of situations - though you never want to let somebody hit a 3 at the buzzer to take you into overtime. But I was glad we embraced that and came out on top."
With the 6-foot-6 Mills scoring on an array of inside moves and outside marksmanship, Van Buren (12-2) built a 12-point lead in the second quarter only to allow the hot-shooting Rams (5-3) to close the half on a 12-3 run and get within two.
Tyner took its first lead since the opening quarter on Javon Craddock's steal and layup with 2:33 left in the third, though Van Buren took a 49-47 lead into the final period after Dillon Young's layup at the buzzer.
Van Buren County standout Caden Mills shoots over Tyner's Solomon Bridgemon during the second half of their first-round game at the Best of Preps tournament Thursday at Chattanooga State. Van Buren survived a 75-69 thriller in overtime and will face McCallie in the semifinals.The Eagles hit three consecutive 3-pointers early in the period - by Bo Walker, Sawyer Shockley and Mills - to take a 58-54 lead, but Tyner ripped off a 7-2 run and took a 61-60 lead on Michael Little's trey with 1:15 to play.
Mills later hit four free throws, with the final two giving the Eagles a 67-64 lead with six seconds to play, but the Rams executed a perfect swing pass down the court to a wide-open Craddock, who buried the game-tying 3-pointer from the corner to force overtime.
"We've got to do a better job defensively finding shooters," Sullivan said. "We gave up nine 3s to two guys, and we had talked about it before, so we knew they could shoot."
But Tyner's hot streak ended, and Mills scored six of his team's eight overtime points to secure the eye-opening victory.
"Coming in we knew there would be good competition in this tournament," said Mills, a Tennessee Tech recruit. "We wanted to show people what we can do since we don't get to play Chattanooga teams very often. This can definitely mean a lot to us, because Tyner is a good team."
Walker added 11 points and Shockley 10 for Van Buren, while Craddock led Tyner with 19.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or (423) 757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.