St. Joseph's Prep fights past La Salle in triple overtime

An hour after St. Joseph's Prep outlasted La Salle, 79-74, in a triple-overtime thriller, a parking attendant outside Prep's Girard Avenue campus made an educated guess directed toward exiting fans.

"Sounded like a good one," he said with a laugh. "We tried to follow on Twitter."

Those inside the building were treated to a classic, replete with multiple comebacks and miscues by both teams on senior day at the Prep.

Chris Clover led the Hawks (18-4, 10-3) with 37 points, 30 of which came in the second half and overtime. James McGovern added 18 and Jack Henkels gave a spirited 10 off the bench.

The Explorers, who controlled the action early, were paced by 27 points from Najee Walls. David Krmpotich added 20 points and 15 rebounds.

Clover (9 of 23 from the field, 18 of 22 free throws) was just too much down the stretch.

"That's why I think he's going to be the MVP," McGovern said. "We definitely need him. We saw in the first half they kind of took him out of the game. Second half, he was just a different person. Each overtime, he just took control, said, 'give me the ball' and we kept feeding him and he went at it."

The Hawks, who trailed by nine points at the end of the first and second quarters, didn't take their first lead until Mark Scarlett hit a three-pointer with 6 minutes, 49 seconds left.

Clover was fouled in the backcourt with one second left in regulation and the Hawks down by two. He made both shots.

"I was just being confident," he said. "I put no doubt in my mind. Just be confident and make the shots."

In overtime No. 2, the Explorers (17-5, 9-4) led by six with less than two minutes remaining until Clover hit a three and later added a three-point play.

In the final overtime, Chris Montie put the Hawks up, 75-74, with 31 seconds left.

Prep will host La Salle in the playoffs this week.

"We definitely have depth on this team," McGovern said. "Scarlett, Henkels, Brendan Burns and me. We're shooters. So if Clove isn't hitting we try our best because we know at the end of the game he's going to take over. It was great having Montie come off the bench. He was a great spark off the bench and made that last bucket to pull us ahead."

La Salle 20 9 10 18 6 8 3 - 74

St. Joe's Prep 11 9 15 22 6 8 8 - 79

LS: Dan Corr 9, Dave Krmpotich 20, Shane Stark 6, Najee Walls 29, Shawn Witherspoon 10.

SJP: Brendan Burns 2, Chris Clover 37, Pete Gayhardt 4, Jack Henkels 10, James McGovern 18, Chris Montie 2, Mark Scarlett 6.