WEIRTON — The Madonna boys’ basketball team has struggled to get into the win column this year, but Tuesday night it was ahead of Cameron for all but about two minutes of regulation play.

Then, the Dragons won the battle going down the stretch, sent the game into overtime and walked out of the Dube Dome with a 62-59 victory.

The victory boosted Coach Tom Hart’s team to 12-3 and solidified their possession of the second seed in the upcoming OVAC Class A tournament. Tuesday was the cutoff point for the boys’ tournament seeding.

Blue Dons point guard Evan Boniti had a career night in leading his team by canning eight 3s and scoring a career-high 30 points. Madonna coach Chris Blair said he’ll have to check the record books to see if Boniti’s eight 3-pointers are a school record.

Regardless, it was the outside-inside junior duo of Boniti and Brennan Secrist that was the catalyst for the near upset by the Blue Dons. Secrist worked the paint area for 14 points.

Hart relied on on a pair of seniors, Dillon Meintel and Travis Mickey, for the second-half drive that led to the win.

“We played pretty well in the fourth quarter after struggling the first three quarters,” he said. “I give credit to Coach Blair and his team. They played a heckuva ballgame. We knew from films that Boniti was a shooter, so we tried to make sure we knew where he was, but he got away from us a few times.

“We ran our press there late in the game and overtime. We didn’t force a turnover on every trip, but we forced them out of their offense a little bit. We try to go inside out on offense, and we wanted to go to the basket more in the second half. We didn’t do that very well in the first half.”

Madonna hit 24 field goals compared to 20 for Cameron, but the Dragons held a huge difference at the foul line, making 17 of 24. The Blue Dons only went to the line six times and made two.

“We missed a couple foul shots there late in the fourth quarter, but we knocked down some big ones in the overtime,” Hart said.

Cameron made 6 of 8 from the from line in overtime to seal a win.

“There was an 18-shot discrepancy at the foul line, but our kids battled,” Blair said. “Evan Boniti played the game of his career. It is a shame we can’t celebrate a win right now, but Evan played a tremendous game. I’m really proud of Evan. His eight 3s have to be close to a school record.

“We missed some point blank shots. We’re just not finishing. We had a lot of easy looks and, if a few more of them had fallen, we’re victorious. We can’t let teams hang around. We have to learn to put teams away.”

Each time the Blue Dons began to pull away, Cameron began to chip away and close the gap. Madonna built its biggest lead at 38-29 with 5:02 left in the third quarter when Boniti swished two 3-pointers in a row. However, Cameron came back to trail by only four going into the final eight minutes at 41-37.

The Dragons finally got the lead back at 50-49 on Mickey’s steal at midcourt, a drive to the basket and punctuation point flush with 1:06 left in the game. It was Cameron’s first lead since Zane Clutter’s layup gave it a 2-0 advantage to open the game.

Madonna got the lead back at 51-50 with 52 seconds showing on the clock on a Secrist drive down the lane. Cameron missed a shot on the ensuing possession, with Secrist pulling down the rebound, but it was unable to get ball across the center line in 10 seconds for a key turnover.

Meintel made the first of two shots from the foul line with 9.5 seconds on the clock to send the game into overtime.

The Blue Dons had a 59-57 lead in the overtime on Boniti’s eighth 3 at 1:12. With 49.2 seconds remaining, Mickey went to the line and made the first of two free throws. Madonna sophomore Lucky Pulice grabbed the rebound on the miss, but the Blue Dons were unable to convert a short jumper. Then, with 29 seconds remaining, junior Garrett Scott made an off-balance layup to give Cameron the lead at 60-59.

Following a timeout with 21 seconds left, the Blue Dons committed a turnover before fouling Mickey, who made the two free throws for the final margin.

Boniti and Secrist were the only Blue Dons in double figures. Pulice finished with eight points. Clutter and Jess Broughton each scored eight points for the Dragons.