5A boys basketball: Jordan overcomes sloppy play to get by Maple Mountain in overtime 56-55

OGDEN — Jordan guard Nate Maiava didn't want to see Tuesday's game versus Maple Mountain to go into a second overtime, and it was absolutely all on his shoulders to determine as much.

With the game tied 55-55 with 0.5 seconds remaining, the junior approached the line for his first of two attempts, but the attempt came up short. In an effort to ice Maiava more, Maple Mountain called another timeout but throughout the discussion with his team, the 6-foot-3 junior remained confident in making his second attempt.

"We shoot a hundred free throws in practice every day, so I just knew I had to make that second one," Maiava said. "My teammates just told me that I got it and just gave me a whole bunch of confidence boosters."

Whatever was said, or what Maiava's mentality was, it all worked. He swished through the second attempt, which all but wrapped up a very hard-earned 56-55 overtime win in which Jordan coach Trace Bevell felt could have and maybe should have come out a different way.

"We came out on the lucky end. Better lucky than good sometimes," Bevell said, while listing off his team's unimpressive stats to the media. "… But with all the negatives, we still won."

The ugly stats for the Beetdiggers included 14 turnovers and just 19-42 shooting from the field. But the most important stat, and really the only stat that ultimately matters was the one more point on the scoreboard.

“We came out on the lucky end. Better lucky than good sometimes.”

Jordan head coach Trace Bevell

Getting there was a struggle, with Maple Mountain coming out strong and taking a 34-27 lead into the half.

"They were just better than us in that first half," Bevell said. "We've got to guard and we didn't guard in the first half."

Most of that changed in the second, however, with an increased focus on the defensive end leading to prime scoring opportunities on offense.

Led by the play of Dyson Koehler, the Beetdiggers put together a 10-2 run to start the third quarter to take a 38-37 lead. They'd maintain that lead throughout the fourth quarter until some sloppy possessions gave way to turnovers and 7 straight points by the Golden Eagles to end regulation in a 53-53 tie.

In overtime, Jordan elected to run clock and ran almost a full two minutes off the clock with the game tied 55-55 until giving up a steal as Maple Mountain rushed down the court in hopes of taking the win. But before an attempt could be made, Maiava made a steal of his own, and in turn drove the length of the court to get fouled on his shot attempt to set up his ultimate heroics.

Mavaiva ended things with 10 points scored, with Koehler leading all scorers with 27. Maple Mountain was led by Tyler Nelson, Logan Green and Braxton Tanner, who scored 13, 12 and 11 points, respectively.

For Bevell, the game drove him admittedly crazy, although some good things can certainly be taken away as his team prepares to take on Murray in the quarterfinal round.

"They outplayed us most of the game and we struggled and struggled, but we were resilient and came back," Bevell said. "Survive and advance, and win by one or whatever. It makes no difference."

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2EeCx8j