Chapin hits clutch 3s for Rosewood

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Published in Sports on January 23, 2014 2:24 PM

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kfine@newsargus.com

If the Princeton Bulldogs didn't know Ethan Chapin before Wednesday night's game, they do now.

The Rosewood High School sophomore made three clutch 3-pointers -- and drew a critical charge -- to help the Eagles pull out a 68-65, double-overtime win in front of a crowd that ultimately stormed the court.

Princeton (8-7 overall, 3-3 Carolina) missed two opportunities to win the game at the buzzer. But had it not been for Chapin's heroics, the Bulldogs likely would not have even had to attempt them.

The Eagles' forward hit a 3-pointer with 22 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime -- and another with 34 ticks left in overtime to force a second.

But the plays fans were talking about after the final buzzer sounded came with far more time left on the clock. With just under three minutes remaining in the second overtime, Chapin hit a 3 to give his team a 65-61 lead.

Then, on the ensuing play, he pulled down a strong rebound and started a break that resulted in two more points for Rosewood.

And when Princeton mounted a comeback of its own, Chapin took a charge with less than a minute on the clock.

Chapin characterized his performance as "about the best I've been all year."

"I feel great about it," he said. "It felt good."

RHS head coach Daniel Mitchell was feeling good about the outcome, too.

"I told the guys that the biggest thing was that we kept playing," he said. "And we kept playing hard. We hit some big timely shots to force ... the overtimes and just kept playing -- fighting through adversity."

Mitchell hopes the Eagles (4-10, 3-3) will carry some of the momentum he feels they gained from the win with them as they travel to Neuse Charter (15-4, 5-1) tonight for a makeup game.