A date in the semifinals of the District 1-AA Boys Basketball Tournament was on the line at Treadway Gym Friday night when the host school Elizabethton Cyclones tangled with the Sullivan South Rebels as the Cyclones were looking for the season hat trick.

It wasn’t easy, but the Cyclones managed to hold down the fort in overtime despite a wacky start to end South’s season and gain a slot opposite Unicoi County in an 8 p.m. semifinal game on Saturday with a 60-53 win.

The first quarter was played even except for the final shot of the period as Elizabethton’s Adam Cornett swished nothing but cotton from just across midcourt to give the Cyclones a 20-17 lead after one.

Cornett was the main reason that Elizabethton had the opportunity for the lead as the senior buried 11 points in the first eight minutes of play.

“We beat them two times in the regular season, but we knew coming into the tournament it was going to be harder,” said Cornett. “I just tried to do my part and lead the team.”

Will Miller, Evan Perkins, and Eric Wilson chipped in with three points apiece as well for the Cyclones.

Three players paced South with four points each in the stanza as Cole Layne, Ethan Ward, and Chase Bowery led the Rebels charge.

The Cyclones went dead cold in the second quarter allowing the Rebels to take command of the game by the break as South outpointed the Cyclones 13-2 to take a 30-22 halftime lead.

Luke Pollack found his range in the period scoring back-to-back treys to lead South with six points.

Parker Hughes had the only bucket for Elizabethton.

Whatever Cyclone head coach Lucas Honeycutt told his team at the break must have hit the mark as the Cyclones came out and flipped the score on South in the third period outgunning the Rebels 16-4 to take a 38-34 edge at the end of three periods of play.

Wilson and Hughes picked up the torch in the frame scoring six and five points respectively with Cornett canning his fourth trey of the contest.

South was determined not to go away, however, as sophomore Ben Diamand coming off an injury showed up like a blue ninja and took control of the last eight minutes of regulation hitting 10 points to allow the Rebels to force the extra four minutes of play outscoring ‘Betsy 17-13 in the fourth.

Miller hit a field goal and a pair of free throws and Hughes connected on 3-of-4 from the charity stripe to ensure the Cyclones had a shot at the win.

Cornett was hammered as time expired with no foul called much to the chagrin of the Cyclone bench and fan base.

Making matters worse to start overtime, the officials allowed South’s Devonte Mitchell and Elizabethton’s Nico Ashley to get turned around on the jump and when South came up with the tip the worked it into the front court before Rebel coach Michael McMeans instructed Diamand to turn around for an uncontested layup at the correct end of the court for South.

The officials were told, but made no amends for the error allowing play to continue.

Just like in life, an injustice usually corrects itself along the way and such was the case for the Cyclones as Elizabethton owned the overtime the rest of the way outscoring the Rebels 9-2.

Cornett was the game-high scorer with 18 points showing senior leadership the entire contest. Wilson reached double digits with 13 points while Hughes play in the second half allowed him to tally out with 11 points.

Miller and Perkins recorded seven points apiece with Nico Ashley adding four.

Bowery led South with 15 while Diamand finished with 12.

Honeycutt said the Cyclones had the play they wanted at the end of regulation, but just didn’t get the hope-for results.

“You always want something to go to the rim,” added Honeycutt. “Sometimes you get the foul and sometimes you don’t.

“If we hadn’t played those teams in regular season where we were behind, we wouldn’t have come out of it at the half trailing in the game. South played really hard.”