FARMINGTON — The Farmington High School boys basketball team figured out one thing Tuesday night: What Marcus Berko doesn't know might be a good thing.
Berko put the Tigers ahead to stay in overtime with a bucket and a foul shot, neither of which he thought he was going to make.
The bucket and freebie made it a three-point lead. Farmington held on to beat Wilton-Lyndeborough in a rough and tumble Division IV battle, 54-50.
It was the Tigers' second win in five days after playing one game in 20 days. They improved to 3-3, while the visiting Warriors dropped to 3-6.
"We were just trying to outwork them tonight," said Tiger coach Adam Thurston, who was trying to piece together what he could given his team's recent lack of game and practice time because of the weather. "I was pretty happy with the effort, especially in the fourth quarter."
Farmington, which trailed by as many as seven points in the third quarter, came back to take the lead in the fourth quarter, 38-37, on a Berko 3-pointer with 5:10 to play.
As time wound down, Farmington tied it on two Logan Ebare foul shots, 43-43, and had three shots in the final 9.4 seconds to win it. All three fell short. Two were by Krys Demers, who drove with nine seconds to go, missed, rebounded the ball and missed that.
Wilton turned the ball over on the rebound and Farmington got the ball back. However, Ebare's shot at the end of an alley-oop was short.
Wilton's long 3-pointer at the buzzer was off.
In OT, it was tied twice at 45-45 and 47-47. Berko's foul shot with 1:39 to play tied it at 47-all.
The teams traded misses, but after the Tigers missed, Gage Noel deflected the rebound to Berko. Berko took the ball to the basket, spun and rolled it in and was fouled. He made the freebie with 1:10 to play to make it 50-47.
"I didn't know if it was going in, but I kept my head up and went up strong," Berko said. "I also thought I was going to miss (the foul shot). But I put my head together and made the shot."
Ebare stole the ball in the Wilton forecourt. Noel was fouled with 27.2 seconds to play and he made one to widen the lead to four, making it a two-possession game. Ebare rebounded the miss on the second shot and Demers was fouled with 18.7 seconds to play. He made one and the lead was 52-47.
Aftrer a Wilton timeout, guard Jake LeVert drained a long 3 with 12 seconds to go to cut the lead to 52-50.
The Warriors pressed, but Farmington was able to break it over the top to a wide-open Josh Tufts, who laid in the easy layup with four seconds to play to sew up the win.
Berko and Ebare led the Tigers with 14 points apiece, while Demers added 11.
"The big thing Marcus did for us tonight was get the ball to the rim," Thurston said. "We didn't get the ball to the rim at all in the first half and it showed. We wanted to get the ball to the rim in the second half and Marcus really set the tone. He's one of my better guys getting to the rim and he hasn't done it for a few games. He finally got there tonight. That was huge, the turning point in the game."
LeVert and Cody Swett paced the Warriors with 14 points each. Jack Schwab had 10.
"We stopped running our offense," said Wilton coach Flip Tremblay. "They're a big team, a fast team. They started pressing us and they got a little nervous. A of mistakes at the end took the wind out of us. I thought we did fight until the very end until that kid broke away on that last basket."
Farmington led 15-10 after the first quarter, but Wilton came back to take a 23-22 lead at the half and was up 33-31 after three.
"We were able to keep our heads up and keep pushing," Berko said. "We wanted to push up the intensity and make it to .500, and keep pushing and working for the playoffs."
Farmington is at Mount Royal Friday.
TIGERS 54, WARRIORS 50, OT
WILTON-LYNDEBOROUGH (50)
Schwab 4-0-10, LeVert 4-4-14, Brennan 0-1-1, Swett 7-0-14, Tremblay 1-3-5, McGettigan 3-0-6, Yurcak. Totals: 19-8-50.
FARMINGTON (54)
Berko 4-4-14, Demers 3-3-11, Ebare 6-2-14, Tufts 2-0-4, Adams 1-1-3, Noel 1-2-4, Williams 1-2-4, Long. Totals: 18-14-54.
Wilton-Lyndeborough 10 13 10 10 7—50
Farmington 15 7 9 12 11—54
3-Point Goals—Wilton 4 (Schwab 2, LeVeet 2), Farmington 4 (Berko 2, Demers 2).