Blanketed by two Hillcrest defenders, his team trailing by three points with six seconds left, Wood River's Brady Femling took it upon himself and rifled home a clutch 3-pointer to tie Wednesday's game 58-58.
It was Femling's 25th point of the night, a season high, and his fifth 3-ball. Overtime seemed likely in the non-conference boys' basketball game played at the Hailey high school gym.
But Hillcrest had 3.8 seconds remaining to push the ball all the way up the floor and the Knights quickly did. Leading scorer Dustin Elliott whipped a pass ahead to junior guard Blake Lewis, who banked home a 26-footer for the buzzer-beating game winner with no time left on the clock.
Hillcrest (5-14), a 23-point home winner over Wood River the last time the teams played, escaped with a 61-58 victory—despite being outplayed wire-to-wire by the Wolverines (2-17). Wood River's 58 points were a season-best for a team averaging 41.0 ppg.
"We did everything we could—we just didn't win," said Wood River coach Fred Trenkle, whose 11-deep team is playing some of its best basketball entering next week's Great Basin Conference West tournament.
He added, "It was a great effort, especially coming back from four points down in the final minutes. We made some mistakes, and could have made more of our free throws. But Hillcrest just had a great player who kept throwing them in. And they made a great play at the end."
Hillcrest's go-to guy was 6-3 junior forward Elliott, a rangy sharpshooter with a feathery touch who quietly scored 29 points on 12-for-16 shooting. He effortlessly put five 3-pointers in the hole. The last time the teams played, Elliott had 28 with five 3-balls.
Trenkle threw Dylan Fullmer, Craig Werley and Morgan Uhrig at Elliott and the big guy still found his openings. Wood River led 45-39 with six-and-a-half minutes left when Hillcrest went on a 13-3 run for a 52-48 lead—Elliott scoring nine straight points like he was taking a stroll.
Femling (11.9 ppg) swished his fourth 3-pointer for a 52-51 game. Sophomore Corbin Miniard (4.1 ppg), who had his best effort with 10 points, went 6-for-7 from the free throw line in the second half including two pressure tosses making it 54-53 at 1:39.
Hillcrest's Daniel Eaton (12 points, 7 rebounds) scored close to the hoop for a 56-53 game, then Wood River junior Morgan Uhrig (7 points, 4 assists) made a great feed to Reno Christino (12 points, 4 boards), who scored for a 56-55 game with 1:00 left.
Two big free throws by Hillcrest's Ozzie Boyce stretched the lead to 58-55, at which point Femling played the hero—his shot all the more impressive because everybody in the gym knew he was going to put it up. At one point, three taller Knights covered him along the perimeter.
Wood River, scoring in double digits in each quarter for the first time, had a five-point lead in the first. It could have been more. The Wolverines shot 7-for-17 from the line in the first half. They ended the game 15-for-28, compared to Hillcrest's 5-for-9.
Casey Lane added 2 points and 4 rebounds, Craig Werley 2 points and 2 assists, and Dylan Fullmer 4 assists. Hillcrest, a 74-53 loser at Century Tuesday night, out-rebounded Hailey 26-13. On the plus side, Wood River had more assists (14) than turnovers (13).
After hosting Blackfoot Thursday, Trenkle's team plays at top-seeded Jerome (12-8, 6-0 league) next Tuesday in the opening Great Basin West tourney game. Burley (10-8, 3-3 league) and Minico (8-10, 3-3) will battle in the other first-round tournament game Tuesday.
