Battler Beat today goes back to Monday, January 9, 1984. We will set the scene as the Alderson-Broaddus Battlers would host WVIAC foe West Virginia State. The game would not have as much meaning as this past season's four overtime game which was for the #2 seed, first-round bye in the G-MAC tournament and for local bragging rights. But this 1984 game did provide just as much excitement and clutch shots as this past season's thriller. Battler Beat will now reminisce about the 1984 five overtime contest between Alderson-Broaddus and West Virginia State. We reference for this story UPI feeds given to the Bluefield Telegraph newspaper.
The 1984 game showcased two head coaches that were in their first year as head coach at each respective institution. Alderson-Broaddus was coached by Tim Brinkley who had returned to the sidelines after taking two years off from coaching. Brinkley was a former all-conference basketball player at Alderson-Broaddus. He was a successful high school head basketball coach at both Clarksburg Roosevelt-Wilson HS and Jefferson HS. Brinkley would leave Jefferson to take the head men's basketball coaching position at WV Tech where he recruited and coached WVIAC greats Sedale Threatt and Robert Price. Brinkley led WV Tech to the NAIA tournment in Kansas City prior to leaving Tech. First year WV State head coach Craig Carse arrived in Institute from Salem College where he had been an assistant basketball coach. While an assistant at Salem, Carse was responsible for recruiting such notable players as Ron Moore, Ron Leggette and Larry Bryson. Those players would help lead Salem to the regular-season title for Salem. More on that later in the story.
The contest on this evening was your typical back-and-forth affair with both teams trading leads throughout the evening. Alderson-Broaddus trailed 74-71 going into the last possession of regulation. A-B's Greg Graham would hit a three-point shot at the buzzer to send the game into what would turn out to be some wild overtime sessions. 'Free money' would be the coined phrase that would certainly apply to what would happen next. Three of the game-ending situations in overtime would have 3-point shots hit at the buzzer to keep the game going.
In the second overtime, the Battlers had a six-point lead. WV State's Curtis Townes would hit two 3-pointers to tie the game. In the third overtime, the Battlers trailed by three points going into their last possession. A-B's Leon Smith hit a 27-foot shot at the buzzer to send the game into a fourth overtime. The fireworks did not stop there. In the fourth extra period, State's Will Rogers drilled a three-pointer with three seconds left in the period. This would force the fifth and final overtime of the evening.
By the fifth overtime, both teams were running out of energy and manpower. A total of of eleven players fouled out in the game. There were six players that fouled out for WV State and five players that fouled out from A-B. The sticking point to this is that the Yellow Jackets only had 8 total players on their roster. The Battlers were equipped with a full 12-man roster. The Yellow Jackets played the final 2:50 of the fifth overtime with just two players on the court. It would have WV State Craig Carse comment: "We were just trying to run around and get the ball. But we don't work on our two-man game a lot." The game ended with the Battlers winning by a score of 126-120. It was a WVIAC record for amount of overtimes played. Even though the NAIA did not keep such a statistical record, there were 98 total points scored in the overtime periods combined.
"We won simply because they (State) didn't have enough players left to put on the floor," said A-B coach Tim Brinkley. "It was the wildest game I've ever seen in my life." WV State's Carse would add: "I've never been involved in anything like that, not as a player or an assistant coach. It was just a marathon." Carse would go on to tell the UPI reporter on Tuesday afternoon that he had still not been to bed after the game being played on a Monday night.
The game also featured two people that are now NCAA Division II head men's basketball coaches. Current Delta State head coach Jimmy Boone was an assistant coach for WV State on that evening while current West Florida head coach Jeff Burkhammer was the starting point guard for Alderson-Broaddus. Burkhammer is a member of the Alderson Broaddus Athletic Hall of Fame. Maybe the most incredible statistic on the evening is that Burkhammer played 64 of the 65 minutes. Battler reserve center Jon Erickson didn't even enter the contest until the fourth overtime. Erickson still scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds despite his late entry into the contest. Coach Carse would go on to lead WV State to the 1987 NAIA national championship game after former Salem players Ron Moore, Ron Leggette and Larry Bryson transferred to the Institute campus. Coach Tim Brinkley would eventually leave Alderson-Broaddus in July of 1987 to start a successful high school career in Florida. But two weeks before Brinkley left the Philippi campus, he signed one of the most successful players in WVIAC history in three-time NAIA 1st-team All American Willie Davis.If any fan was at both games, then they could decide whether the 1984 game or the 2017 game was the most thrilling. It would probably be a case of splitting hairs. I was at the 2017 game but reading about this game shows it had just as many thrilling moments at this past season's marathon contest. What Battler Beat can conclude is that historic Rex Pyles Arena has hosted two of the longest games ever played in two respective conferences. The 1984 game was the longest game played in WVIAC history while this past season's finale was the longest game played in the G-MAC. It just further adds to my opinion that there has always been a special nostalgia to Rex Pyles.
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