CARTERVILLE — Saxton Hoepker scored 23 points and Isaac Turner added 17 as Nashville outlasted Breese Central 47-45 in overtime to win the Carterville 2A Sectional championship and advance to Monday’s SIU 2A Supersectional.

Nashville got off to a great start. Turner hit four first half three-pointers and scored 15 of his 17 helping the Hornets build a 12-point second quarter cushion. It was 23-13 at the half.

Breese Central (28-6) cut the deficit to six at 29-23 by the end of the third quarter. The Cougars then opened the fourth with a 14-2 run, capped by Dalton Boruff’s three-point play. Central led 37-31 with 2:28 to play.

Up until that point, Nashville had scored eight second half points in 13:40 of game time. The Hornets then scored six straight in the next 1:20 to tie the game at 37. Hoepker scored all six points on a pair of field goals and a pair of free throws. The final four points of the spurt were set up by steals from Carter Shoenherr and Nolan Heggemeier.

Central guard Cody Dickshot nearly ended the game in regulation. With 1.7 seconds left, the Hornets had the length of the floor to go. Dickshot stole the inbound pass at midcourt, launched a shot, that banked off the rim leading to overtime.

Kolten Gajewski scored on a putback and 1-2 from the free throw line early in OT to give the Hornets a 40-37 lead, but Chase Lewis buried a three-pointer for Central to tie the game back up.

Hoepker tipped in his own miss to put the Hornets back in front to stay with 1:51 left. After missing the front end of two one and ones, the Hornets made 5-6 free throws down the stretch to seal it. The Cougars did not make another field goal until Lewis canned another three-pointer at the buzzer for the final tally.

Brady Moore was the only one to reach double figures for Central. He finished with 14 points.

The Hornets will now face Teutopolis (26-7) in the second game Monday night at approximately 7:45 at the Banterra Center on the SIU campus.