MONMOUTH — Wednesday’s game at Foster Gym was so tense, so dramatic and at times so frustrating that it left Monmouth coach Lucas Turner mixing his metaphors. And hitting the rewind button on the historical highlight reel.

“It was like Pedro Martinez was on the mound,” Turner said.

Well, for the second time in a little more than a week, the Mustangs found a way to hit a home run in overtime.

Tim Whitmore’s 3-pointer capped the Mustangs’ initial possession with 3:14 remaining. It provided Monmouth’s only points of the extra session, but it held up for a 34-33 MVC boys’ victory over Winthrop.

Winthrop immediately answered with a baseline jumper by Billy Gordon.

After nearly three minutes of clock time that featured a missed Monmouth free throw, an exchange of fouls and an endless chess match of timeouts, Winthrop wound up with seven seconds to design the potential game-winner.

Gordon was the no-doubt shooter. Whitmore was Monmouth’s obvious choice to blanket him from the time he got the ball.

The Winthrop senior launched a shot from the right elbow with two hands flailing in his face. It rattled high and wide off the window at the horn.

“We had a chance,” Winthrop coach Rollie Pelkey said. “We had the ball in our best player’s hands, and he had a good shot.”

Whitmore finished with 11 points, five assists and three steals for Monmouth (8-3). Gordon led Winthrop (6-5) with 11 points and seven rebounds.

Monmouth’s Roger Bachelder scored seven of his game-high 13 points in the fourth quarter and added 11 rebounds.

Robby Neal and Whitmore combined for 10 points in the third period, when the Mustangs began digging themselves out from a disastrous start.

Forget a baseball pitcher’s duel: Winthrop led by the score of a football defensive struggle, 10-9, at halftime, and 24-16 with 49 seconds remaining in the third.

“That’s like being down 16, because that’s half your points you’ve got to score to get back in it,” Turner said.

Winthrop, which lost its last three meetings with its next-door neighbor by 17 points or more, employed a 2-3 zone that gave Monmouth fits.

The Mustangs committed only three turnovers in the first half but shot a frightful 3-for-22 from the field.

“We came out with a lot more confidence,” Pelkey said. “We’re starting to believe that we can compete with these guys.”

Whitmore rallied the Mustangs with five points in the final 30 seconds of the third on a 3-pointer and a transition lay-up off his own steal.

Bachelder made it 10 unanswered points with a 3-point play followed by an inside bucket that furnished Monmouth’s first lead of the night, 26-24, with 5:04 to go in regulation.

Tyler Foster (eight points, four steals) tied it with a runner in the paint.

Whitmore’s free throw and back-to-hoop hoops from freshman Brandon Goff and Bachelder made it a 15-2 run and a five-point lead with 2:37 to play.

Monmouth wouldn’t score again in regulation, however. And Gordon took over with a 3-pointer from the left corner and a foul-line leaner to force OT.

“We didn’t execute well at the end of the fourth quarter to finish it,” Turner said. “We’ve got to get this monkey off our backs. I don’t know what’s wrong. We’re 10 percent off what we were shooting last year. We’re due for a big game. We just break the net in practice. Here in games we’re breaking the rim.”

Ryan Conant dished out seven assists for Winthrop before fouling out early in overtime. Ryan Castonguay chipped in seven points, five boards and five blocked shots — three in the fourth quarter.

koakes@sunjournal.com

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