The cozy confines of the Grays Harbor College gym weren’t as friendly to the Choker basketball teams this time around.

Savannah McGill hit a desperation 3-point shot at the buzzer in overtime to give South Puget Sound a 79-76 victory over the Chokers in the women’s half of an NWAC Western Division doubleheader Wednesday night.

Taking command in the opening 12 minutes of the second half, South Puget Sound’s men remained unbeaten in division play with an 83-69 triumph over GHC.

The Chokers had swept Green River earlier this month in the first co-ed doubleheader at their gym. Wednesday’s losses dropped the women to 2-3 in league and 7-10 overall and the men to 2-3 in league and 6-14 for the season.

WOMEN Clippers 79, Chokers 76, OT

The Chokers suffered a heartbreaking defeat in a wildly fluctuating contest filled with dizzying momentum shifts.

After trailing by 16 at the half and leading by as many as 11 in the fourth quarter, the Chokers owned a 76-74 lead in overtime when Estelle Wilson sank two foul shots with 35 seconds remaining. McGill tied it with a pair of free throws a couple of seconds later.

Rebounding a GHC miss, the Clippers (2-3, 8-10) called time with 15.9 seconds on the clock.

With time running down, Wilson blocked a Clipper shot. McGill retrieved the loose ball near the right sideline and cast off from at least 25 feet a split second before the horn sounded. The prayer was answered, as the shot banked in off the glass as time expired.

The winning shot capped a remarkable performance for McGill, a 6-foot-1 sophomore from Lacey’s River Ridge High School. She finished with 19 points, 27 rebounds and seven assists.

Shooting only 17 percent from the field in the first half, the Chokers faced a 32-16 deficit before turning things around with a 36-point third quarter.

Wilson set the tone by stealing the second-half inbound pass and feeding Angela Sikora for a layin. Typical of GHC’s ball-hawking defense in the quarter, that triggered a run of 12 successive Choker points to open the third quarter.

With Sikora scoring 11 points and Lake Quinault product Romey Begay canning four 3-pointers in the period, Grays Harbor stunningly took a 52-43 lead into the fourth quarter. The margin was 11 when Alexia Thrower hit a pair of foul shots with 8:46 remaining.

Then it was Grays Harbor’s turn to commit turnovers. South Puget Sound parlayed a 15-4 run into a 69-67 lead with 1:19 remaining. Thrower’s driving layin at 0:51 tied it and both teams missed opportunities in the remaining span.

“We’re still learning,” GHC coach Chad Allan summarized. “We made freshman mistakes — turnovers and missed layups. We have the ability to get the job done but we need more seasoning. But I’m proud of the effort.”

The speedy Thrower attained a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Sikora added 17 points, Wilson 16 and Begay 14 for the Chokers.

MEN Clippers 83, Chokers 69

A 12-minute stretch early in the second half foiled Grays Harbor’s upset bid.

With freshman guard Jordan Phillips putting on a dazzling long-range shooting demonstration, the Chokers led 21-14 midway through the first half and were still competitive, trailing 38-32, at intermission.

South Puget Sound, however, was able to burn both man-to-man and zone Choker defenses by taking the ball inside at will in the early stages of the second half. Kobe Key came off the bench to score 10 points and Dez Stoudamire added eight in the second half as the Clippers (5-0, 14-4) established a double-digit advantage in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the half. The margin was 22 with seven minutes remaining.

The Chokers, to their credit, created a modicum of late drama. Consecutive three-balls by Keeandre Rowland and Kodi Leslie trimmed the deficit to eight, at 77-69, with 1:07 remaining before the Clippers scored the final six points.

Grays Harbor coach Alonzo Cole attributed the rough passages to a lack of “focus and concentration.”

“We don’t move our feet on defense and don’t play fundamentally sound basketball,” he observed.

Phillips knocked down seven threes — most of them launched from a good five feet behind the arc — in leading all scorers with 26 points. Malik Redmond added 14 points and John Robinson 10 for the Chokers.

The Chokers limited the high-scoring Stoudamire (the cousin of former NBA standout Damon Stoudamire) to 12 points. But freshman guard A.J. Hodges helped pick up the slack for South Puget Sound with 20 points.

Grays Harbor post Jared Jackson saw limited action due to an injured back. The Chokers were without two players (Tiki Hickle and Guy Bean) due to a disciplinary actions.

The Chokers host Lower Columbia in a doubleheader on Saturday.

WOMEN

SPS 12 20 11 26 10 — 79 GHC 8 8 36 17 7 — 76

South Puget Sound (79) — S. Sauls 12, Sowle, McGill 19, Bergquist 12, Keeli Demers 6, Venes 4, Ellsworth 6, T. Sauls 11, McMillan 3, Kessa Demers 5, Hidalgo 1. FG — 25-61 (.410). FT — 22-29.

Grays Harbor (76) — Begay 14, Wilson 16, Falealii, Sikora 17, Brasher-Norwood 2, Thrower 19, Salazar 8, Brisbios, Efferson. FG — 28-87 (.322). FT — 10-15.

MEN

South Puget Sound (83) — Chavez 7, Stoudamire 11, Hodges 20, Kuajian 9, Black 6, Key 12, Hampton 6, Deloney 2, Goff 2, Hamilton, Reynolds 8, Jarrett. FG — 31-51 (.608). FT — 14-15.

Grays Harbor (69) — Robinson 10, Leslie 3, Rainey 6, Phillips 26, Jackson 4, Hayes, Rowland 6, Redmond 14. FG — 25-64 (.391). FT — 9-15.

Halftime: South Puget Sound 38, Grays Harbor 32.