Southern beats Fairdale 87-85 in 3 overtimes

It took Southern a long time to find the range in free-throw shooting, but the Trojans finally found the mark in the third overtime of an 87-85 victory over Fairdale on Monday night.

Playing in the first round of the 65th Republic Bank-Coca-Cola Louisville Invitational Tournament, Southern (13-4) missed 16 of 38 foul shots but made its first eight in the third overtime to win a thrilling contest at Bellarmine University’s Knights Hall.

Alan Almanza, a senior guard, made six of those eight free throws and Randell Pickett sank the other two as Southern advanced to play the tourney’s second seed, Bullitt East (13-2), in second-round play at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday.

“It feels good beating our rival and beating them in the LIT,’’ Almanza said after scoring 15 points and grabbing six rebounds.

Pickett, a 6-2 junior forward, paced the Trojans with 28 points, although he missed 9 of 18 foul shots. “Man, I couldn’t get them to go in,” he said. Pickett also grabbed 11 rebounds, three more than teammate Patrick Horsley, who had 13 points.

“We’ve had two double-overtime games and one triple-overtime game this season and we’ve won all three,’’ Southern coach Todd Raque said. “But we turned the ball over way too many times (25). We let them back in the game in the second half with turnovers, but Fairdale did a great job then. They took the fight to us.’’

Fairdale (6-11), which trailed 27-11 at halftime and by 15 points midway in the third quarter, got 20 points from Coryontez Thomas, 18 from Josh Payne and 17 from Boo Crabtree.

&#; Fern Creek 69, Collegiate 58: Justin Newby turned it on in the second half to lead the Tigers over the Titans. Newby, a 6-2 senior, scored 16 of his 23 points to pace Fern Creek (11-7), a win that qualified them to play fourth-seeded Pleasure Ridge Park (14-3) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Fern Creek led 31-30 early in the third quarter when Newby hit two 3-point shots and 5-6 senior guard O’Brien Hobbs made one to push Fern Creek ahead 40-32.

“That got me going,’’ Newby said about the threes. “I was going in and out of the game, but when coach (Dion Layfield) put me in again he told me to shoot with confidence.’’

Newby hit 8 of 10 shots, including all three of his threes and all four free throws. He also pleased Layfield by grabbing eight rebounds.

“I’ve been getting on Justin about his rebounding,’’ Layfield said. “If he rebounds, he scores. What I want from him is good defense and rebounding. He’s a good shooter. Twenty-three points and eight rebounds! I’ll take that any day.’’

Collegiate (10-3) got 14 points from Andrew Steggeman, who hit 4 of 11 shots, including 3 of 9 threes.

&#; Beth Haven 40, Western 38: The Bearcats (13-2), making only their second LIT appearance, rallied from a 38-34 deficit in the last 38 seconds to win their sixth straight game. Brandon Lamkin hit two free throws with 0:03.4 left to win it.

The Bearcats’ first LIT win, after losing to Butler 69-45 in their LIT debut in 2010, earned them a shot at top-ranked Trinity (11-2, 8-0 in Kentucky) at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Beth Haven tied the game at 38 on a 3-pointer by Tyler Brian with 0:13.9 remaining. Armond Langford of Western misfired on a three and Kenneth Wachira fouled Lamkin on the rebound.

&#; Male 64, Doss 60: The Bulldogs, who won their last LIT title in 2002, got clutch baskets down the stretch from seniors Zack Moran and Lamarcus Taylor in improving their record to 10-9 under new coach Larry Miller. Male will play Moore (13-3) at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. Miller coached Moore last season.

With Male trailing 53-52, Moran scored two consecutive baskets. Taylor then followed with back-to-back goals to put the Bulldogs ahead 60-55. Taylor later added two free throws for a 62-57 lead. Taylor wound up with 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting. He made two of six threes and five of six foul shots. Moran hit seven of 10 shots for 15 points and took off six rebounds.

Rex White scored eight of Doss’ first 10 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 24 points. He made seven of 12 shots, including three threes, and seven of eight free throws. Stephon Bryant hit four threes and added 16 points for Doss (10-7).