Portal’s visiting Panthers scored the final five points of the fifth period of the contest to take an extremely hard-earned 78-76 overtime victory over the hard-luck SCHS Gamecocks Saturday night in the regular season finale at the Harold Lee Scott Gymnasium. 
Finishing at 9-15, the Roosters next will be in action Feb. 17 in the opening round of the 3AA tournament at Brewton Parker College in Mt. Vernon.
In pregame ceremonies, seniors Jadrian Manderville, Fab Mills, PJ Reason and Cornelius Roberts were honored in their final home game and the end of their final regular season.
In losing their third overtime contest of the season, the Red and White again were ever-so-close. Leading 76-73 after Fab Mills hit one of two free throws with 2:14 left in the overtime, SCHS saw the Panthers move within two with 2:14 and knot the game at the 1:12 mark.
SCHS missed a jumper with only 45 seconds remaining. After a steal, the Roosters missed a layup and a possible put-back. Portal, however, took the lead with 8 seconds left. A final possession resulted in a turnover.
The game was the second two-point loss in as many nights as the near overnight trek to Eastman Feb. 5 resulted in an 83-81 loss to the Indians of Dodge County. Both contests saw the Gamecocks fall behind early and battle back in their special way to set the stage for someone’s late-game heroics.
Saturday night the Roosters were down 69-64 with barely a minute remaining. A deuce and a trey by Mills knotted the game at the 1:08 mark. Holding the ball for a final shot, Portal was thwarted by a jump ball with just 15 seconds remaining. 
Given a chance to win the game in regulation, the Gamecocks were not able to get off a decent shot as the game was sent into overtime.
Trailing throughout the first half, the Roosters took their first lead since the 7:30 mark of the first quarter when Mills hit a three with just 12 seconds left in the third quarter. The visitors came down and hit a trey of their own with only 1 second left in the third to set a 48-48 stage for the final quarter. 
After four fourth-quarter lead changes and three ties, the blue-clad Panthers began to seemingly pull away as they led by as many as eight at 65-57. SCHS, however, still came back to knot the game, sending it into the final four minutes.
Mills finished with 28, Reason 26 and Roberts 12. Roberts also pulled down 16 rebounds and Reason six.
On Friday night, another great offensive performance went for naught as Reason poured in 29, Mills 22 and Roberts 15. Also, Roberts had nine rebounds with Reason and Manderville five each.