MAN n The monkey is off his back, but it didn’t come easy for coach Jimmy Justice and his Man Hillbillies.

Just when things looked bleak, senior Brandon Duncan stepped up his game and showed why he is a senior captain.

Trailing the Iaeger Cubs 61-54 with 1:20 remaining, the Hillbillies stepped up the defensive pressure and forced overtime on Duncan’s 3-pointer with 0:10 remaining to tie the game at 64-64.

Duncan would score seven of his game-high 26 points as the Hillbillies and Justice picked up their first victory of the year with a 78-70 victory Tuesday evening at the Man Memorial Fieldhouse.

“Duncan stepped up and hit a big 3-pointer to send it into overtime,” Justice said. “You expect that from your senior captain. He made the plays tonight when we needed them and showed why he is a senior captain.”

When asked how it feels to get that monkey off his back, Justice replied “really good,” but credited his team’s character in the come-from-behind victory.

“It feels really good,” Justice said. “I called a timeout with 12 seconds remaining in overtime and told the kids that they showed a lot of heart. They didn’t want to lose and it showed out there tonight.”

Man led 21-15 after one quarter of play, but Justice wasn’t happy with the intensity shown by his starting five in the opening quarter.

Justice benched four of his five starters in favor of freshmen Tyler Browning, Travis Hurley and Evan Riggins as well as junior Thomas Booth and senior Scott Earnest.

Iaeger responded with a 7-0 run to take a 22-21 lead, forcing Justice to call a timeout with 6:38 to play in the first half.

After the timeout, Justice substituted the players back into the contest and they responded with a 16-4 run to close out the first half and take a 37-26 halftime lead.

“I was trying to give my starters a wake-up call because I wasn’t getting the focus and intensity I wanted out of them,” Justice said. “Iaeger went on a run and I put the starters back in and they did step it up.”

Things appeared to be in great shape for Justice’s first victory, but the Cubs would not go quietly as they beat the first half buzzer with a basket from J.L. Reed. Reed’s basket would ignite a 13-0 Iaeger run to tie the game at 37-37 on Joey Dotson’s 3-point play.

Man’s first points of the third quarter would come with 2:30 remaining following a basket by Duncan to regain a two-point advantage at 39-37.

When the third quarter ended, Iaeger had a 45-43 lead thanks to a 19-4 run. The Cubs got a basket from Reed to start the fourth for a 47-43 lead, but Man would tie the game at 47-47 on baskets by Earnest and Duncan with 6:09 to play.

Iaeger would respond with a 9-2 run to take a seven-point lead at 56-49 with 3:34 to play in the contest.

With Man down seven at 61-54, Coty Bays hit a 3 from the left wing to cut the deficit to four at 61-57 with 1:11 remaining. Duncan followed with a steal and layup to cut it to 61-59 with 1:03 to play. A free throw from Dotson would give Iaeger a 62-59 lead with 1:00 to play, but Riggins answered a basket 10 seconds later to cut the deficit to 62-61.

After a Iaeger turnover and a Man timeout, the Hillbillies would have a chance to win it, but a 3-pointer from Bays was short as Chris Lauderback raced down the court and converted a layup with 0:19 remaining and a three-point Iaeger lead at 64-61 before Duncan’s game-tying 3-pointer.

Riggins would give Man a 66-64 lead in the extra frame before Lauderback tied the game with a bucket of his own at 66-66 with 3:09 to play in overtime.

From there, the Hillbillies would take control and knock down 10-of-12 foul shots including 5-of-6 from Duncan to pull away for the 78-70 victory.

Following the game, Justice said his team gave Iaeger a lot of confidence on the Hillbillies home floor by allowing the Cubs to stay in the contest.

“It was a hard fought game and Iaeger is an improved team, but we helped them gain a lot of confidence,” Justice said. “They hung around with us on our home floor and the longer you do that the more they believe they win.”

Lauderback led four Cubs in double figures with 17 points. Robert Haywood and Dotson each had 16 points while Chris Addair scored 11. Reed had six and D.J. Lester scored four for the Cubs who dropped to 3-4 with the defeat.

Duncan’s 26 points led three Hillbillies in double figures. Duncan also dished out eight assists to go along with five steals. Bays finished with 14 and seven rebounds. His brother, Cory Spence had 12 to go along with 15 rebounds and three steals. Matt Bowen scored seven, but left the game with an injury in the third quarter. Earnest scored six while Kassime Hickman scored a season high five points and had four steals.

Riggins finished with five and Hurley had three for the 1-5 Hillbillies, who had a season-high 19 steals and pulled down 44 rebounds.

Man will hit the road Friday to face the Tug Valley Panthers, who are coming off a 57-33 victory over Burch. Man has defeated Tug Valley five straight times including a thrilling 65-62 victory at Tug Valley last year.

“From what I understand, Tug Valley has a good team as they always do,” Justice said. “They have a good program and it never easy to win over there. I would be real pleased if we got over there and got a win out of it.”