No. 2 Owyhee survives double-OT thriller against SIC foe Meridian to keep unprecedented championship hopes alive
NAMPA - There was no celebration for the Owyhee High School boys basketball team following the momentous first postseason win in program history Thursday night.
But there was plenty of that Friday night after surviving a thriller that saw everything from a 15-point second half comeback to a player willing dropping his shorts in front of everyone to going into two extra periods.
The Storm endured it all in a 53-50 double overtime win over Meridian Friday night in the semifinals of the Idaho Class 5A State Tournament at the Ford Idaho Center.
No. 2 Owyhee (23-3) will play No. 8 Centennial (16-10) at 8 p.m. Saturday in the 5A state final game right back at the Ford Idaho Center for a chance to win a title in its first year of existence. It’s a feat no one in basketball has done since the Lake City girls in 1995 and no boys program has accomplished in modern history.
“I said it at the beginning of the game, ‘Let’s make history,’” said senior Jack Payne, who finished with 11 points. “It’s the first-ever state tournament in school history. It’s pretty insane. We’re going to have a lot of fun tomorrow.”
But it didn’t look like there was going to be a tomorrow for the Storm - well in terms of playing for a state title.
They let a 17-point first-half and 15-point halftime lead slip away in the blink of an eye. Last year’s state champions went on a 13-2 run in the third quarter to set up a wild and wacky fourth. The craziest part of it all had nothing to do with the game itself.
Nursing a 44-41 lead with 3 minutes and 40 seconds to play, Owyhee burned a timeout when blood seeped into the uniform of Payne because of a cut on his back that had reopened. Payne, who had already swapped from his usual No. 24 to the No. 21, now needed shorts. So he went right towards junior Reece Sasser-Gunson and asked for his. But instead of going back to the locker room with him, Sasser-Gunson decided to drop them right then and there with thousands of spectators watching.
“I was like, 'Pull those up, we’re going back here,” Payne said with a laugh.
They sprinted into the tunnel to change and Payne didn’t miss a second of the game.
“We’ll definitely have to cover that with Reese later,” Owyhee coach Andy Harrington joked. “But that was a big-time play.”
Laughter turned into cheers when freshman Zeke Martinez buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key to tie the game at 44 apiece with 2:51 left in the game.
“I just asked them to be true to the uniform that they were wearing,” Meridian coach Jeff Sanor said. “I know how much that uniform means to all of them and I just asked them to play for the name on the front.”
The 44-44 score remained for the rest of regulation when Meridian senior Davis Thacker was called for a travel with a little more than a minute to go and Owyhee sophomore Liam Campbell missed a jumper at the buzzer.
Meridian had a shot to win it in overtime with the game tied at 46-46. But senior Ladu Kaden’s layin attempt with four seconds remaining was too strong to force another four minutes of play.
The Warriors tried to run out the clock up 50-49 in the second overtime with 1:13 left. But out of timeouts, senior Ethan Pearce got caught in a trap and coughed up the ball to Owyhee junior Barrett Fernanez. The timely steal resulted in junior Titus Bailey giving the Storm the lead at 51-50 on two free throws with 1:01 on the clock.
Thacker tried for the go-ahead shot with 29 seconds to go. But it didn’t get anywhere near the rim, only hitting the backboard. Senior Nathan Reynolds secured the rebound for the second-chance opportunity, but his back foot just grazed the baseline for Storm ball. Payne, who missed a couple of key free throws that would have won the game in regulation, rose to the occasion this time and drilled this pair with 21.8 seconds left.
Meridian attempted to send the game into a third overtime. But an errant pass by Thacker went off the hands of senior Austin Ramos for a backcourt violation with 2.9 seconds to go. Payne was able to cleanly inbound the ensuing pass to Fernandez and the court-storming was on.
“That second half was terrible,” Harrington said. “I don’t know how we won, but we found a way. “The toughest team wins.”
Bailey tallied a game-high 18 points, including what may have been the biggest shot of the night for Owyhee. He canned a much-needed 3-pointer off an inbound play to take a 49-48 lead with 3:20 to play in the second overtime after Owyhee had once again fallen behind.
“For Titus to come over from Capital, where they didn’t win a lot of games, early in the year his confidence was a little low,” Harrington said. “But that dude has been one of the best players around the last month of the season.”
The Storm will now play a Patriots’ team that it beat by 29 and 25 points during the regular season. But after what happened Friday, they’re not taking anything for granted.
“We gotta be prepared,” Harrington said. “They’re playing with great momentum. They’re really moving it and shooting it. I’m sure they have a ton of confidence.
“We’ll be ready to go.”
Pearce racked up 17 points, while Martinez chipped in with 12 for Meridian, which graduated all but one starter from last year’s championship team. The Warriors will play No. 5 Rigby (17-9) at noon Saturday in the third-place game at Columbia High School.
“It just showed what my guys are really made of and what our program is about,” Sanor said. “These guys are fighters.”
