13 overtimes? How a basketball game played 60 years ago in NC entered the record books
A basketball game played 60 years ago in North Carolina went into 13 overtimes — with no substitutions.
Now, decades after the buzzer signaled the end of the historic game on Feb. 29, 1964, the teams still hold the record for the most overtime periods in a high school boys basketball game, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
The night of the unprecedented game, players from Angier High School and Boone Trail High School faced off for the Harnett County championship. Spectators packed into a gym at Campbell University in Buies Creek, roughly 30 miles south of Raleigh.
“There were so many people along the sideline, you actually had to turn sideways to put the ball in bounds,” Phil Ferrell, who played for Angier, told WRAL in 2020.
The game was tied at the end of regulation, signaling the start of the back-to-back extra periods.
“The two teams duked it out in 13 overtime sessions, and both teams used only the original five starting players in the game with no substitutions,” the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources wrote in a blog post and a Facebook post marking a past anniversary of the game.
Historians said “there were nine sessions where neither team scored any points.” But the game took a turn when it entered the 13th overtime, a detail that reportedly was hidden from a superstitious Angier player. During that period, two foul shots helped put Boone Trail over the top, ending the long-running game, WRAL reported.
“For them, it was probably the win, the game of a lifetime,” Woody Williams, a substitute for Angier, told the TV station. “For us, it was the loss of a lifetime.”
Among the Angier players was the late Caulton Tudor, who was a columnist for The News & Observer in Raleigh and an N.C. Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
Reports about the game’s final score vary, with Boone Trail winning 56-54 or 54-52. Whatever the score, the matchup ended with minutes to spare.
“The game began at 8:30 p.m. Saturday and ended just before midnight,” historians wrote. “With the final buzzer, it just avoided the ‘no play on Sunday’ rule.”
More about the historic win
The contest has been called “the longest high school basketball game on record,” which is accurate when considering it has the most overtimes in the National Federation of State High School Associations’ online archives for boys teams. The overtime record also is “unmatched by the NCAA or NBA,” Campbell University athletics wrote on its website.
But when it comes to time spent on the court, other games have lasted longer. In the early 2000s, basketball marathons in Nebraska went up to 52 hours, trumping the three-hour North Carolina contest, the Beatrice Daily Sun reported.
These days, high school basketball teams traditionally play four quarters that last 8 minutes each. After 32 minutes of regulation, each overtime period is an additional 4 minutes, the N.C. High School Athletic Association said on its website.
“As many such extra periods as are needed to break the tie shall be played,” the rules state. “Game ends, if, at end of any extra period, the score is not tied.”
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