JACKSONVILLE – Throughout its history of hosting the Northeast Regional basketball tournament, Jacksonville State University’s Pete Mathews Coliseum has seen its share of memorable battles.

But none have been more epic than Saturday morning’s Class 3A semifinal between the Piedmont Bulldogs and sixth-ranked Plainview. It took five extra periods before it was settled, making it the longest game in Northeast Regional history. It featured nine ties and 10 lead changes.

When it was all over, Plainview managed to outlast Piedmont 74-65 to advance to Wednesday’s regional final.

“Just a great high school basketball game, a fun game to be a part of,” Plainview coach Robi Coker said. “We’re excited to come out on the winning side of it.”

As much excitement as there was for the Bears (27-4) for winning their first-ever regional game and school-record 27th game, there was as much heartbreaking disappointment for the Bulldogs (20-12).

“We told our kids, ‘Outside of the disappointment, this will be a game you remember for the rest of your lives,'” Piedmont coach Tommy Lewis said. “Obviously, to have won would have been much better. A lot of times people play their entire career and not have game like this. We fought back so many times. You can’t be anything but proud.”

Piedmont, which defeated Plainview 65-48 in last year’s regional semifinals, took control early in this year’s battle. The Bulldogs jumped out to an 11-2 advantage before Plainview cut its deficit to five at 17-12 at the end of the first quarter. The Bears clawed even closer by halftime, trailing 24-21, but Piedmont regained control in the third to take a 41-31 lead.

Momentum shifted back to Plainview in the fourth.

The Bears took their first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by Jake Slay with 48 seconds remaining in regulation. Following a pair of free throws by Piedmont’s Austin Brazier that gave the Bulldogs a 52-51 advantage, Slay sank another trey to put the Bears in front 54-52 with 18 seconds to go.

Piedmont had the ball one final time in regulation, with Brazier driving inside the paint. His shot was blocked by Will Kirk, but Darnell Jackson secured the rebound and laid it up to tie the game at 54 and force the first overtime.

Plainview appeared to gain the upper hand in overtime, going up five on another Slay trey and a steal and layup by Caden Millican with just over three minutes to go.

But the Bulldogs battled back on an Easton Kirk 3-pointer and a Jackson layup, tying the game again at 59 with 1:20 left.

Both teams had their chances to regain the lead and potentially win the game, but neither could score down the stretch, forcing the second overtime.

Neither team scored in the second overtime, which propelled the game to a third extra period tied at 59.

Piedmont suffered a significant blow when Jackson committed his fifth foul just after the third overtime’s opening tip. He finished the game with 12 points, but the Bulldogs managed to persevere without him.

After Plainview took a 61-59 lead on Will Kirk’s jumper with 51.5 seconds to go, Bayley Blanchard tied the game again at 61 on his own jumper with 33.8 ticks on clock.

Will Kirk connected on another shot and was fouled with 11.1 seconds left. He missed the free throw, which was rebounded by Piedmont’s Easton Kirk, who passed the ball to Blanchard.

Blanchard drove the ball inside and missed a layup, but Brazier picked up the rebound and scored at the buzzer, tying the game at 63 to force a fourth overtime.

Brazier, who led Piedmont with 19 points and 12 rebounds, put the Bulldogs ahead 65-63 in the fourth overtime on his layup with 36 seconds remaining. However, Plainview’s Clay Cooper connected on a layup with 21.8 seconds left, tying the game again at 65 and eventually forcing a fifth overtime.

Plainview managed to pull away in the fifth overtime with a 9-0 run, keyed by Slay’s fifth 3-pointer with 3:37 to go that gave the Bears a 68-65 advantage. Will Kirk scored a basket and was fouled with 2:19 left. He connected on the ensuing free throw, extending the Bears’ lead to 71-65. Will Kirk also canned another pair of free throws with 1:26 remaining, pushing Plainview’s lead to 73-65. Cooper hit one of two free throws with 53.2 seconds left for the final.

Slay led all scorers with 21 points, including five 3-pointers. He also had seven rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal. Will Kirk contributed 18 points, 10 boards, four blocked shots and two assists. Millican managed 14 points, including four treys, with four rebounds. Jeffrey Armstrong added 11 points, four boards and four assists. Cooper finished with eight points, four rebounds and four assists.

For the game, the Bears sank 12-of-36 3-pointers.

“We’re very dependent on the three-point shot,” Coker said. “I could see it in our guys’ eyes ‘Maybe we shouldn’t shoot this one. We’ve missed seven in a row’, or whatnot. Starting with the fourth quarter, we challenged our guys to keep shooting the three, trust our system, trust the work you put in. The percentages are in your favor. We ended up shooting 33-percent, which is probably the worst we’ve shot it in the last eight or 10 games, but I want us to keep shooting it.”

In addition to Brazier’s double-double and Jackson’s 12 points, Blanchard also reached double figures with 10 points. He also had eight rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals. Taylor Hayes also had 10 points, five boards and three assists. Easton Kirk contributed six points, eight rebounds and three assists. Cardavion Myers also had six points for the Bulldogs.

Piedmont connected on just 4-of-15 3-pointers in the game.

“For us, we didn’t hit a lot of easy shots, and we didn’t get a lot of easy outside shots,” Lewis said. “We had to work for everything. They (Plainview) got to shooting so well that some of their points came a little easier. We just struggled the whole time. Missed free throws, layups, things like that. You can’t pick any one thing and say it was that. Just too many things happen in five overtimes. To play five overtimes, that’s asking a lot out of someone.”