Published: March 02, 2008 09:07 pm            

Byng falls to buzzer-beater

Tecumseh sneaks past Pirates in 4A Area

Oklahoma City — During a sensational post-Christmas run which had seen them win 16 of 19 games heading into Thursday afternoon’s Class 4A area loser’s bracket showdown with old rival Tecumseh at Western Heights High School, the 15th-ranked Byng Pirates had prided themselves on executing in the clutch.

In the final seconds of Thursday’s game, though, the Pirates failed to make plays at both ends of the floor, and the hot-shooting Savages capitalized, converting a late Byng turnover into a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer by senior guard Clint Wilson to complete a 53-51 upset and avenge two regular-season losses.

Tecumseh (15-11) drained 3-pointers on four straight trips down the floor — three of them by point guard Henry Weaver — in a span of just 96 seconds, after the Pirates had scored 12 straight points to take their biggest lead of the game at 42-39 on a layup by senior forward Nathan Turtle off a feed from junior Dakota Abbott with 6:26 to play.

Weaver’s third trey of the quarter with 4:34 to play gave Tecumseh a 51-47 lead, then Byng sandwiched a stop on defense between a driving layup by point guard Jared Walker and a jumper from the free throw line by senior center Caleb Timmons over the next 1:09 to tie the game with 3:25 remaining.

Wilson took — and missed — his first shot of the quarter, a 3-pointer on Tecumseh’s next trip down the floor, and a few seconds after Corey Eagleston grabbed the long offensive rebound, Turtle dove on the floor and came out of a scramble with his third steal of the game to give the Pirates possession with 2:54 to play.

At that point, second-year Byng coach Trent Miller called a timeout and opted to play for the last shot, and he called another timeout after the Pirates had milked all but 11.6 seconds off the clock.

Senior guard Glen Mitchell, whose 3-pointer from the left corner in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter had given Byng its first lead of the night, took the inbounds pass and dribbled down the lane, but Wilson stole the ball almost immediately.

“We were wanting to dribble in and call time out and get the ball on the baseline, because we’ve had good success with our inbounds plays,” Miller said of his offensive strategy in the final seconds. “We had (the game) right where we wanted it.”

Miller called a timeout after Walker was whistled for Byng’s third team foul of the half with 6.8 seconds left, and back-up point guard Sentro Burns picked up another foul with 5.5 seconds to play. With two fouls still left to give before putting Tecumseh in the bonus, Miller told his players to foul again as soon as the Savages inbounded the ball, and two Pirates went for Weaver when he caught the inbounds pass.

But Weaver flicked the ball to Wilson, who dribbled to the right of the lane with two Byng players trying to foul him, and he threw up the game-winning shot with Burns in his face.

“We shouldn’t have double-teamed the basketball,” Miller said. “We just didn’t execute.”

Wilson’s last-second heroics spoiled a spirited comeback by the Pirates, who trailed by nine points in each of the first three quarters against a Tecumseh squad that turned in its best shooting performance of the season.

The Savages were 13-for-22 from the field in the first half while building a 32-26 lead, and they finished 21-for-37, including a remarkable 11-for-17 from beyond the arc.

“It’s disappointing — it shouldn’t have ended like this for this group of guys,” Miller said after seeing his club end the campaign at 20-8. “We just ran into a team that was red-hot shooting the basketball. And it wasn’t because we weren’t guarding them.”

Tecumseh freshman Kevin Hill was amazing in the first half, draining 8-of-9 shots, including all four of his 3-point efforts, to account for 20 of the Savages’ 32 points before the break. His long trey with 1:27 left gave his club its biggest lead of the opening period at 18-9, and after Turtle’s layup made it 18-11 heading to the second quarter, Hill went coast-to-coast with a rebound for a layup with 7:30 left in the half to again make it a nine-point game.

Byng trimmed the deficit to 20-15 on Mitchell’s one-handed floater in the lane at the 6:09 mark and Walker’s steal and layup (his only basket before the break) 12 seconds later, and the Pirates trailed just 22-20 after Abbott hit a 3-pointer with 3:40 left in the half and connected with Mitchell for a beautiful lob and midair lay-in 30 seconds later.

But Tecumseh scored 10 of the next 14 points — on a pair of 3-pointers by Hill and two more baskets by Weaver — over the next 2:37 to take a 32-24 lead on Weaver’s turnaround 14-footer with 33 seconds left in the half. The Savages settled for a six-point lead at the break when Mitchell beat the clock with another lay-in (this time off a feed from Burns).

“I think we came out kind of flat, and that surprised me a little,” Miller said. “When you’re playing on that stage, you’d better come out ready to play.”

Tecumseh took its biggest lead of the second half at 39-30 on a turnaround 10-footer by Daniel Judkins (his only shot of the game) with 2:43 left in the third quarter, then Walker — who rebounded from arguably his toughest first half of the season (two points on 1-of-3 shooting and four turnovers) to hit 5-of-7 shots and score 11 points after the break — drained a baseline jumper at the 2:20 mark to start the 12-0 run that gave the Pirates the lead for the first time all afternoon.

Walker converted a steal with less than a minute left in the quarter into a three-point play at the other end when he was fouled on his drive to the basket for a layup, and he turned Tecumseh’s third straight turnover to end the period into a floater in the lane with six seconds left to trim the deficit to 39-37 heading to the final eight minutes.

The Savages’ fourth straight turnover — this one a steal by Turtle in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter — resulted in Mitchell’s go-ahead 3-pointer (off a Walker assist) at the other end, and the lead grew to 42-39 on Turtle’s layup with 6:26 left.

Weaver tied the game at the 6:10 mark with a 3-pointer from the left corner, then he answered Walker’s conventional three-point play at the 5:55 mark with a trey from the right corner 15 seconds later, and the Savages never trailed again.

Hill’s 3-pointer with 5:08 to play (his only field goal and one of only three shots he took in the second half) made it 48-45, and Weaver answered a point-blank baseline jumper by Timmons off a Mitchell feed with 4:50 remaining with another 3-pointer from the right corner to give Tecumseh its biggest lead of the quarter.

Despite his quiet second half, Hill finished a sparkling 9-for-12 from the field for a game-high 23 points, and Weaver — who didn’t have a point in the second half before his late 3-point barrage — was 7-for-11 in the game (including 4-for-6 from beyond the arc) for 18 points.

Wilson’s game-winning bucket also put him in double figures with 10 points, and he combined with Hill and Weaver to score all but two of Tecumseh’s points.

Walker and Timmons finished with 13 points apiece to lead a more balanced attack for the Pirates, who also got 11 points apiece from Mitchell (who had three assists to share team honors with Abbott) and Turtle. Timmons also pulled down six rebounds, but Byng had a season-low 14 for the game, due in large part to the fact that the Savages missed just 16 of their 37 shots.

        

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