By TREY HICKMAN/For the Reporter

MONTEVALLO — Powered by diehard determination as well as clutch performances by Malik Abrams and Darrell Foster, the visiting Chelsea boys’ varsity bested Montevallo 74-66 in an overtime thriller.

Down by seven following the opening quarter, the Hornets (3-3) fought back to tie the game at 28 before Montevallo went on a 9-1 run to close out the first half up 37-29, making it seem as if the Bulldogs might pull away following the break. In fact, Montevallo extended its lead in the third period and began the fourth quarter up by nine.

But it was in that final period of regulation that Chelsea’s rock-solid desire came to the forefront as the Hornets — courtesy of Foster and Jeremy Wilson — scored the quarter’s first seven points. David Mock’s 2-point bucket with 3:15 left put Chelsea up 54-53 for its first lead of the game.

With the Hornets up 60-57, Montevallo guard Undreaz Lilly nailed a 3-pointer with 31.4 seconds remaining to knot the contest at 60, and that’s how regulation ended.

In overtime, guard Malik Abrams poured in six points while Montevallo struggled mightily with its 3-point attempts as Chelsea got the win.

“We’re going to fight,” said Chelsea head coach Michael Napp. “We’ve done that (come back) a couple of times this year. We’ve come back from some pretty big deficits. We were down to John Carroll (by) double digits in the third quarter and came back to beat them, so these guys have been resilient several times in this young season. We have really young guards. Our starting point guard is a freshman and he’s learning how to handle pressure like this.”

Abrams and Foster scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, for the Hornets.

Undreaz Lilly led Montevallo with 17 points, followed by Dajion Young’s 14 and Tae’ Smith’s 13.