Gold stun Celtics in Overtime 122-119

PORTLAND, Maine. - Dane Goodwin scored 17 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Gold erased a 22-point deficit to rally past Maine 122-119 in OT. 

The Gold snap their three-game losing streak with the win and improve to 6-9 in the regular season. Maine falls to 9-7 with the loss. 

Goodwin connected on five of his seven threes after the third quarter and also finished with a game-high 12 rebounds. Javonte McCoy also poured in 25, going 5-8 from three. Moses Brown scored 18 for Grand Rapids, and Terrence Hargrove Jr., Kessler Edwards and Cutris Jones all had 16. As a team, the Gold shot 43.3% (42-97) from the field and 47.7% (21-44) from three. Grand Rapids outscored Maine 59-34 over the last 17:42 of regulation and overtime to overcome a 22-point deficit in the win. 

Ron Harper Jr. scored a game-high 37 points behind seven threes in a losing effort. Aaron Scott went 4-6 from three en route to 16 points off the bench. Jalen Bridges also had 16, along with Kendall Brown, who had 15 and Max Shulga, who collected 14. Maine made 20 threes in the defeat, shooitng 36.4% (20-55) from distance. The Celtics shot 37.5% (39-104) from the floor. 

Ron Harper Jr. got it going early. In his return to Maine, Harper Jr. scored 8 of the Celtics' first 14 points, and his three with 6:46 to go in the first quarter trimmed a four-point Grand Rapids lead to 15-14. Harper finished the first with a game-high 10 points. Outside of Harper Jr., the rest of the Celtics began the night shooting 1-12 from the field, and with 2:36 left in the quarter, the Gold held a 21-16 advantage. That’s when the Maine offense came to life. A pair of Bridges threes aided an 8-2 C’s run to even the game at 24-24 with 1:08 to play in the first. But, Hargrove Jr., who paced Grand Rapids with 8 first quarter points, connected on a three in finale minute to lift the Gold back ahead 27-24 at the end of one. 

The Celtics opened things up to begin the second. Maine began the quarter on a 26-8 run, connecting on three of its first four threes in the period to take a 50-35 lead with 5:04 to go in the half. The C’s continued to shoot it well from distance. Kendall Brown knocked down Maine’s seventh three-pointer of the quarter with under a minute to play in the half to give the C’s their largest lead of the night at 64-47. But, no Maine three was deeper than Harper Jr.’s half-court buzzer beater to end the first half with the Celtics on top 69-52. Harper Jr. led all scores with 18 first-half points. Brown scored nine points in the second and finished the first half with 13. As a team, Maine shot 42.3% (22-52) from the floor and 40.7% (11-27) from three. Hargrove Jr. ended the half with 11 for Grand Rapids, as did Jones. The Gold shot 41.5% (17-41) from the field in the half and 45% (9-20) from beyond the arc. 

Maine picked up right where it left off to begin the second half. The Celtics scored the first two buckets of the third to extend the advantage to 73-52. After a 7-2 Grand Rapids spurt made it 75-59, threes from Bridges and Harper around a Gold basket increased the lead back to 20 at 81-61 with 7:07 left in the quarter. With Maine on top 91-71, back-to-back Grand Rapids threes trimmed the lead down to 91-77 with 1:14 to go in the quarter, the closest it had been in the second half. The Gold connected on five threes in the third, going 5-10 from beyond the arc in the quarter, and it remained 91-77 at the end of three.  

The Gold continued to chip away to begin the fourth. Grand Rapids scored the first two baskets of the quarter to lessen the deficit to 91-81. Those two buckets were part of a 18-9 run to begin the fourth and with 5:31 to go a Brown put back cut the Maine lead with down to 100-95. Harper Jr. wasn’t going to go away quietly. His two threes and a three-point play put Maine back up by eight at 106-98 with 4:45 to go. But the Gold kept coming. With 1:07 to go, a Brown free throw made it 112-111. After Shulga connected on a pair of free throws to put the C’s up 114-111, a Goodwin three with 3.6 seconds to go tied it at 114-114 and sent the game into overtime. 

With a target score of 121, a pair of Goodwin threes on the first two possessions of overtime quickly jumped the Gold in front 120-114. A Shulga three, a defensive stop and a Bridges put-back dunk made it 120-119 and brought Maine within a basket of the target score. But Grand Rapids got there first. Edwards scored the game-winner in a 122-119 OT victory. 

The Celtics wrap up their five-game homestand with two games against Westchester this weekend. Game one with the Knicks is set for Saturday at 1 p.m.