Nationally Ranked Team's Triple-Overtime Game's Surpising Score

A nationally ranked high school basketball team's score usually approaches triple digits, but not always.

When No. 12 Flower Mound (Texas) Marcus High didn't even hit 40 points after 3 overtimes, many were left scratching their heads, especially since Marcus' defeated the rival team by double-digits in their first meeting.

So how did Plano (Texas) West High, Flower Mound's local rival, keep the score so low?

Outright stalling.

The game produced all sorts of statistical oddities, according the Yahoo Rivals. West's average possession time was over a minute, including the last 2:30 of regulation.

The triple overtime game, which ended with a 38-31 Marcus High win despite the tactic, also didn't produce a single point in the first overtime.

"We were convinced they were going to do something drastically different," Marcus coach Danny Henderson told the Dallas Morning News. "What they did was one of about three things we thought they might do."

Perhaps most astonishingly, West almost won the game, twice. The unranked team missed two buzzer-beaters that would have propelled them pasted their ranked rivals, one at the the end of regulation and another at the end of the first overtime.

West also kept Marcus' two star players, Phil Forte and Marcus Smart, to just 19 points during the game, according to Yahoo.