For a while, the Doherty Spartans were doing a poor job of overturning the notion that it’s difficult to beat a team three times in a season.
Already having lost to Rampart twice in league play, Doherty found itself down by 18 in the first half and seemingly destined to be ousted by its Colorado Springs Metro League rival.
Then it flipped.
The Spartans (18-9) roared back with a 15-0 run in the third quarter, forced overtime after a back-and-forth fourth, then blitzed the Rams (23-3) to cap the shocking comeback.
“I think our team did get a little bit down, but that’s what I’m here for and that’s what Coach (Dan McKiernan) is here for,” said Spartans senior guard Tyler Velasquez, who scored a team-high 19 points. “We had to recharge our team at halftime.”
Doherty fell into the early crater because of a 3-point barrage by Rampart’s Alex Koehler. The senior, who led all scorers with 23 points, went 5-for-5 from beyond the arc in the first half but only 1-for-7 the rest of the way.
The teams traded baskets in the final 18 seconds of regulation — first a putback by Doherty’s Andrew Hill to give the Spartans a 57-55 lead, then Rampart’s Devon Grant rebounded his own miss to tie it with eight seconds left. Velasquez missed a long 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Rampart defeated the Spartans 63-56 on Jan. 5 and 72-68 on Jan. 30, but watched its magical season end when Doherty’s Mark Jones scored six points in overtime, including a go-ahead 3-pointer from the right wing.
“We’ve worked all season on finishing out games, so I knew once we got there, we’d finish,” Velasquez said.
