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Stangtastic finish Last-second shot propels No. 1 Grizzlies to 48-46 victory over PayetteBy: Ray RodriguezArgus ObserverFriday, January 16, 2009 11:07 AM PST
RAY RODRIGUEZ ARGUS OBSERVER Fruitland’s Matt Stanger (left) is mobbed by teammates Devin Decroo and Steven Van Patten (11) moments after he sank a game-winning 3-pointer Thursday in Fruitland. The Grizzlies won the game, 48-46.Fruitland—With 2.5 seconds left on the clock, Payette fans were ready to unleash a victorious yelp in a fitting climax to a classic battle between the No. 1 and No. 3 ranked teams in the state.However, Fruitland’s Matt Stanger had a silencer in the palm of his hands.Stanger retrieved an inbounds pass, fired an off-balanced 3-point shot at the buzzer and quieted the stunned Pirate faithful in the Grizzlies’ 48-46, come-from-behind triumph Thursday in Snake River Valley Conference boys basketball action in Fruitland.“This is a huge win, especially coming back from behind,” Stanger said. “We were down by a lot going into the half, but we just came back and gave it our all. We just played Fruitland basketball, kept attacking and got it done.”At one point in the contest, Payette bolted out of the blocks with a vengeance, taking as much as an 18-4 lead with 4:36 left in the second quarter.
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The Grizzlies found the iron unkind, with a 13 percent shooting effort in the opening half, and saw themselves down 21-9 at the break.In the third quarter, all the bounces went the Grizzlies’ way as they canned six 3-pointers, erased the double-digit deficit with a 22-6 run and led 31-27 heading into the final stanza.With 3:59 remaining in the fourth quarter, Ty Pena, who scored a game-high 23 points, made good on 1-of-2 free throws to give the Grizzlies a 41-37 lead.On Payette’s ensuing possession, Tyler Kuder hustled for an errant pass, dropped to the ground, gained possession and made a pass to Jordan Schultz.
Schultz swished the 3-pointer, and the Pirates were down 41-40 with more than three minutes remaining.Fruitland went dry on its next possession, and Kuder gave Payette a 42-41 lead with a layup.Stanger answered on the Grizzlies’ next possession to give his squad a 43-42 lead, but Kuder nailed a layup to give Payette the 44-43 lead with two minutes left.Not to be outdone, Fruitland’s Devin Decroo quickly answered Kuder’s basket with a basket of his own, and the Grizzlies were up 45-44.
Both teams traded missed-shot attempts on successive possessions, and on Payette’s next chance, Brad Pollock made a dash to the basket for a layup to give the Pirates a 46-45 lead with less than 30 seconds left.Pena missed a jumper on Fruitland’s next possession.Kuder grabbed the rebound for Payette and made a pass to Pollock, who was fouled with 15.5 seconds left.Payette was clinging to the one-point advantage, and Pollock had a chance to add to the total.The senior missed the front end of a 1-and-1, Stanger grabbed the rebound and the Grizzlies raced to midcourt and called a timeout.The play was called for Pena, and he drove to the circle just above the free throw line for the jumper. The ball bounced on the rim for what seemed like an eternity but rimmed out.The rebound went off a sea of hands to the corner, where Zack Fabricius snared the loose ball.The original call was out of bounds with Payette retaining possession, but the officials conferred and gave possession to Fruitland with 2.5 seconds left, setting up Stanger’s heroics.“Payette deserves a tremendous amount of credit. They played a very, very, very good basketball game,” Fruitland head coach Mike Fitch said. “In fact, until that last little bit, you can probably say they outplayed us. I don’t know about every facet of the game, but they came out early and did a lot of things well.”Stanger finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Decroo had four points, eight assists and five steals, for the Grizzlies (9-2 overall, 1-0 SRV), who shot 18-of-54 from the field.Kuder led the Pirates with 19 points and 12 rebounds, and Brad White added 12 points.For the game, Payette (10-3 overall, 0-1 SRV) hit 19-of-40 from the field and held a 33-20 rebound advantage.Even in defeat, Payette head coach Shawn Scow was appreciative of his team’s effort.“They gave me everything they had, and that is all I can ever ask for as a coach. They left it all out on the floor,” he said. “I am so proud of them. To come through with this kind of effort in a hostile environment says a lot.”Fruitland 48, Payette 46