For the second time this season, Blount and Baker played a tight, down-to-the-wire basketball game.

And for the second time, the Leopards came out on top.

Blount rallied from a 17-point, third-quarter deficit and knocked off Class 7A No. 2 Baker 69-68 in overtime in a chaotic, packed gymnasium in Eight Mile on Tuesday night. Blount principal Jerome Woods said the school sold 1,700 tickets to the game, and all 1,700 were seemingly there.

“This was like the biggest game in the state,” Blount coach Demarcus Mosley said. “No lie. It’s a big win. Now we can keep the momentum going into the playoffs instead of losing a game and trying to bounce back from a loss.”

The Leopards (17-6) also beat Baker 67-66 on Dec. 6. The Hornets fell to 21-6 with the loss heading into their final regular-season game Friday night at Class 3A No. 2 Cottage Hill.

“We did enough to win that game, and it didn’t go our way,” Baker coach David Armstrong said. “I’m not taking anything away from the Blount kids, but I think we did enough to win that game, and it got taken away from our guys and it shouldn’t have. They played their butts off. They played great. They made shots when they were supposed to.”

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Baker closed the first half on a 9-1 run to take a 38-27 advantage at the break. Junior guard Labaron Philon scored the final 6 points of the quarter and finished with 17 in the first half. The Hornets bumped the lead to 17 twice in the third quarter – the final time at 50-33 on Dashawn Beverly’s basket with just under four minutes left.

“We got down a little at the half,” Mosley said. “They ran a 1-3-1, and it kind of slowed us down. We adjusted to it. I subbed in my defender, Javarous White, and we went to a 1-2-2 trap, got a bunch of steals and it got us back into contention.”

It did more than that actually.

The Leopards scored the next 18 points and led 51-50 on Jerry Brand’s driving layup with 4:54 left in the game. That’s when it really turned unpredictable.

Blount’s AJ Jackson and White both fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Philon fouled out for Baker with 2:13 left in regulation and the Hornets leading 57-55. Philon, who said after the game he plans to announce his commitment on Friday, finished with 25 points.

Blount’s Devontaey Woulard scored four straight points to put the Leopards back in front at 59-57 before Ryan Majors hit 2 free throws to tie it again at 59-59. Woulard had a chance to win the game in regulation for Blount but missed a pair of free throws with 1.2 seconds left.

“We had the game won in the third quarter, and we started turning the ball over and foul trouble got into our head and got us messed up,” Armstrong said. “We let them crawl back into it because of that. We had to play defense differently, and we still turned the ball over a little too much.”

With Philon out of the game and forward Josh Flowers saddled with four fouls, the plan became simple for Blount: Let Woulard and Joseph Paige drive to the basket. The guard duo scored all 10 of the Leopards’ OT points. Paige hit 2 of 4 free throws with 6.1 seconds left after Baker was called for a personal foul and its second technical foul of the half. The shots gave Blount a 69-68 lead.

Baker’s desperation, halfcourt 3 at the buzzer was no good, and the overflow Blount crowd spilled onto the court to celebrate on Senior Night.

“It hurts to play the last four minutes without your best player,” Armstrong said. “We’ve worked on it. We played a whole game without him last week. They didn’t have their best guy either. We didn’t play good enough defense down the stretch, gave up some fouls and costly stuff. I’ll take that on me. I shouldn’t have got a technical whether it was deserved or not. I feel like we lost one we shouldn’t have.”

Paige led Blount with 22 points. Woulard followed with 21, 14 of which came in the fourth quarter or in overtime. Jackson fouled out with 16.

“We went spread, and I just said, ‘Go beat your man,’” Mosley said of his plan in overtime. “That’s all we did, and I’ve got confidence in my guys to beat their man.”

Flowers followed Philon on the Baker scoring list with 13 points. Lovalle Nelson followed with 11.

“I think ultimately in the end playing games like this late in the year, though it hurts to lose, it’s still a good wakeup call,” Armstrong said. “This is a good, tough team to play. To go into the playoffs, you need play teams like that. I think we should have beat them. I think we did enough to beat them. It just didn’t go our way.”

Baker finishes the regular season at Cottage Hill on Friday before hosting its area tournament next week. Blount’s regular season is finished. The Leopards will await area tournament play next week.