SPEARFISH - Spearfish's boys basketball team has suffered some tough losses this season but none more frustrating than an 69-65 overtime loss to Pierre on Friday night.

Pierre fought back from a 13-point deficit to hand the Spartans their seventh loss, five coming by six points or less.

The visiting Governors trailed 44-31 with five minutes to play in the third quarter but outscored Spearfish 38-21 the rest of the way.

Pierre's Sean Melmer sank a pair of crucial free throws with 1:19 to go in regulation and then added another foul shot with 43 seconds left to put the Govs up 59-56. Spearfish's Justin Kemp then nailed a huge 3-point shot to tie the score at 59 with 34 seconds on the clock.

Pierre turned the ball over on a traveling violation with six seconds left to give Spearfish an opportunity to win the game. Jordan Johnson quickly dribbled the length of the court, drove to the bucket, and collided hard with a Pierre defender. With the outcome of the game in the balance, the referees talked it over and then ruled an offensive foul. Instead of going to the line with a chance to win the game, Johnson left the floor with his fifth personal foul.

Pierre then won in overtime by hitting 8-of-12 free throws.

Accuracy at the foul line was a key to Pierre's win. The Governors connected on 31-of-40 free throws to Spearfish's 16-of-29.

"We stepped up and made our free throws and that was the difference," said Pierre coach Terry Becker.

Neither team could hit an outside shot early in the game. With two minutes left in the opening half, each team had made just one shot longer than five feet. Then, Spearfish caught fire. Johnson and Kemp hit back-to-back 3s to put the Spartans up 32-23 and it looked like Spearfish was on its way to its fourth straight win.

The Spartans continued to shoot well in the third period and led 47-38 with two minutes remaining in the quarter. Pierre then scored 12 straight points to take a 50-47 lead. Bryant Stadler's 3-point play on a drive to the bucket tied the score at 50 and the two teams battled on even terms into the overtime.

Becker said the Governors made several adjustments to get back into the game.

"In the first half, we took quick outside shots and couldn't get into a flow. We got into playing Spearfish's up tempo kind of game. Later, we got more aggressive in attacking the basket. We also picked up our defensive pressure," said Becker.

"It was a good win. We have a young team but our kids are becoming more consistent," said the Pierre coach.

Spartan coach Dan Martin was extremely disappointed with the agonizing defeat.

"It was a tough way to lose, but it's part of life. I'm proud of our kids. We played hard. We've just got to get ready to battle back Saturday," said Martin.

Spearfish (4-7) will host Aberdeen Central at 3 p.m. today while Pierre plays at Sturgis.

Kemp paced Spearfish with 18 points. Johnson added 13 points, five rebounds, four steals, and eight assists, and Stadler hit 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

"Spearfish did a good job on the glass. We only got one shot most of the time, and they also got some key offensive rebounds," said Becker.

Matt Tetzlaff topped Pierre with 21 points while Kyle Cichos and Curry Kuehl added 13 each. Cichos also had 15 rebounds.