Thirty six minutes of regulation time were not enough to determine the winner of the boys basketball game at St. Peter Thursday night. And, it took every second of the four-minute overtime session for the Bucs to pull out a 48-46 victory.

With nine seconds to go and no timeouts, the Bucs took the ball the full length of the court.

Freshman Brady Anderson was quickly surrounded by Saints players as he entered the front court. Somehow, he managed to find Nick Lee under the basket for a buzzer-beating shot to give the Bucs a thrilling win.

“This was a big win on the road,” says Bucs mentor Gary Holmseth. “It was a tournament-type atmosphere. Our offense showed some poise and toughness that’s needed to be successful in the playoffs.”

The Bucs did not have their best night shooting the ball but their defense rose to the occasion.

Brodie Raymond, the outstanding guard for the Saints, was held scoreless in the first half before scoring 17 in the second half. The next highest scorer for the Saints had seven points. Garrett Anderson had an outstanding night rebounding, pulling down 20 boards to come up one shy of the Bucs’ record held by Stacy Howard set in the 80s. Nine of Anderson’s boards came on the offensive end of the court.

It was a hard fought first half with both teams playing solid defense. The widest margin enjoyed by either team was three points as the Bucs took a 20-19 lead into the locker room at half time.

It looked like BEA might pull away as the second half got under way. The Bucs scored seven of the first nine points to open up a 27-21 lead.

A Saints’ timeout with 13:07 remaining seemed to slow the Buc’s momentum as Raymond hit consecutive shots to cut the Bucs’ lead to two points.

The Bucs soon found themselves trailing by 5 points at 37-32 before fighting back to tie it at 39-39 with 5:34 remaining. Each team scored five more points in regulation to send the game into overtime tied at 44.

The victory gives the Bucs a record of 5-3 in the conference and 11-7 overall. They have won nine of their last 11 games.