FRANKLIN FURNACE — To the Green Bobcats, “quit” is a four-letter word.

Trailing by 12 points at one time, Green battled back to tie the game at the buzzer and then win 46-40 in overtime over the Portsmouth Clay Panthers Friday night in a Southern Ohio Conference game.

“The thing I was the most proud of was how we kept playing. We could have easily folded up at any time. We battled uphill the whole game,” Green coach Kevin Lewis said.

Jason Bester rebounded a missed shot and hit a short jumper just before the buzzer to tie the game at 33-33 and force the overtime.

Green, which trailed the entire game until Bester’s shot, used some clutch foul shooting by Derek Lewis in overtime to get the win.

Kent Robinson hit a pair of 3-pointers for Clay in overtime, but Lewis was 11 of 14 from the foul line as Green improved to 8-4 overall and 6-1 in the SOC, one-half game behind leader Western Pike.

“You could see Bester’s shot give us momentum and deflate them in overtime,” coach Lewis said.

“Clay’s defense set the tone the first half. They played extremely well. But we played well defensively, too, and kept it at a working margin.”

After Clay led 4-2 at the end of the first quarter, Robinson and Lewis scored five points each in the second quarter and the Panthers were up 13-8 at the half.

The third quarter was a repeat of the first half. Robinson had six points while Green’s Brian Ramey scored five of his nine points in the quarter and Clay was up 24-17.

“We forced some turnovers and got some baskets and battled back. Our defense set the tone in the fourth quarter,” coach Lewis said.

Bester had six points in the fourth quarter to lead Green’s comeback.

Lewis, who was 15 of 18 from the foul line including 12 straight, led Green with 18 points, six rebounds and three assists. Ramey had seven rebounds.

Robinson led Clay (6-4, 4-3) with 17 points.

Ports. Clay491197=40

Green2691613=46

PORTSMOUTH CLAY (6-4, 4-3):

Derek Webb 2 0 0-0 4, Justin Craft 2 0 1-1 5, Kent Robinson 4 3 0-0 17, Ryan Cucore 2 1 2-3 9, Doran Martin 1 0 1-4 3, Matt Straud 1 0 0-1 2, Michael Thacker 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12

4

4-9

40. Fouls: 26. Fouled out: Thacker, Craft, Cucore. Turnovers: 31.

GREEN (8-4, 6-1): Joey Dyer 1 0 5-6 7, Jason Bester 3 0 0-1 6, Derek Lewis 0 1 15-18 18, John Bowen 2 0 0-0 4, Brian Ramey 3 0 3-7 9, Ian Kelley 1 0 0-2 2, Nathan Patten 0 0 0-0 0, John Dawson 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11-46

(1)

23-34

46. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. Turnovers: 10. Assists: 5 (Lewis 3). Rebounds: 26 (Ramey 7, Lewis 6).