Tre Brooks was nearly unstoppable on Tuesday night.

The Marshalltown senior put up a career-high 33 points against Ottumwa, including a buzzer-beating three to force a second overtime with the Bulldogs, but the visitors escaped the Roundhouse with a last-second steal and a 69-68 victory.

Brooks scored all of Marshalltown’s 13 points in the two overtime periods and had 25 points between the second half and both overtimes.

“The emphasis in the locker room at halftime was that we were going to get the ball to Tre until they stopped him, simple as that,” MHS head coach Michael Appel said. “We felt very confident with their bigs switching on him that he was going to get to the rim every single time and he did a great job of that.”

Leading 68-67 with the ball, Brooks looked for a mid-range jumper that hit front iron and was rebounded by Ottumwa. Out of a Bulldog timeout, Ottumwa junior Trae Brown was fouled with 6.8 seconds left and made both of his free throws.

“We sent three guys at Brown there in hopes he’d get the ball out of his hands,” Appel said. “Unfortunately, we put him at the line and he made the shots.”

Brooks and the Bobcats were determined to run the length of the floor with under six seconds remaining and put up a game-winning attempt to match the running three Brooks drilled in the first overtime.

However, Rahsha Pope poked the ball away from Brooks, and Nehemiah Wolfing came up with the steal to dribble out the final seconds.

“He was just trying to be aggressive, get to the rim and make something happen, and with that little amount of time it’s tough to do that,” Appel said. “And he executed it great in the first overtime. … If we’re struggling to shoot the ball, there has to be an emphasis on getting the ball to him so he can get to the rim and make plays.”

Cory Smith added 14 and Kyle Smith 13 points for the Bobcats.

MHS had multiple chances to put the Bulldogs away in the first overtime period, leading 60-58, but two three-point attempts were off the mark before Ottumwa tied it at 60-all.

“We can’t put ourselves in the position where it’s coming down to the last play,” Appel said. “If we just execute our offense the right way, we’re gonna get really good looks and finish them off.”

The late dramatics come in a game where Marshalltown was down 35-23 at halftime, outscored 12-6 by Ottumwa in the second period.

“We just had some terrible breakdowns on some guys that shouldn’t have been hurting us offensively as much as they were, and that really hurt us early on,” Appel said.

The Bobcats move on to a road tilt on Friday.

“This should be a wake-up call of how much better we can be from one half to another if we play how we’re capable of playing,” Appel said. “We gave 100 percent effort, we were aggressive and scoring at the rim with Tre being a big part of that.

“We’re struggling to shoot the ball right now, but we have good shooters, so we have to stay confident in that. But we also have to understand that we’ve got a point guard that’s very tough to guard, driving to the rim and allowing us to have a lot of good things going on.”

Ottumwa 69, Marshalltown 68, 2OT

OTTUMWA (9-4) — Rahsha Pope 10 0-0 22, Chase Thompson 0 6-8 6, Nehemiah Wolfing 1 0-0 3, Parker Derby 5 0-0 10, Trae Brown 10 4-5 25, Javen Rominger 0 0-0 0, Matthew Mitchell 1 0-0 3, Kooper Hugen 0 0-0 0, Bryan Coulter 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 27 10-13 69.

MARSHALLTOWN (6-10) — Carter Giannetto 2 1-2 6, Treshaun Brooks 15 2-3 33, Kyle Smith 5 0-0 13, Cory Smith 7 0-0 14, Rogelio Ceren 1 0-0 2, Jacob Hayes 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 30 3-5 68.

OTTUMWA 23 12 13 7 9 5 — 69

MHS 17 6 15 17 9 4 — 68

3-Point Goals–Ottumwa 5 (Pope 2, Wolfing, Mitchell, Brown), MHS 5 (K. Smith 3, Giannetto, Brooks). Team Fouls–Ottumwa 11, MHS 16. Fouled Out–Ceren. Technical foul–MHS coach Appel.