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You’d need to go all the best way again to 2004 to search out Bonneville Excessive College’s final boys basketball area championship — the identical 12 months that Lakers’ senior Jake Williams and a few of his fellow senior teammates had been born.
On Friday evening, that just about 20-year-old drought got here to an finish.
With 2.5 seconds remaining in a tie ball sport, Williams obtained a go from teammate Joe Tesch, who had simply corralled an offensive rebound, and buried a game-winning 3-pointer handy Woods Cross a 54-51 defeat in Area 5’s de facto title sport.
Williams’ shot capped off what ended up being six unanswered factors from the Lakers over the ultimate 3:36 of the sport.
“I simply noticed Joe Tesch go up for that board. He fought his (butt) off all sport, and when he kicked that ball out, I knew I needed to put it in,” Wiliams mentioned.
“We’ve been wanting this all season. We’ve been speaking about it and everybody’s been doubting us, however I feel (we're) the group of boys who deserved it.”
The Lakers actually made essentially the most of their title-winning second, as gamers took turns reducing the web off the ring the place the game-winning shot discovered its means house.
The truth that the end result got here on senior evening, in entrance of a virtually full-capacity house crowd, was simply icing on the cake for the upperclassmen-heavy Bonneville squad.
“It’s simply an unbelievable feeling,” Bonneville senior Carson Jones mentioned. “When Jake shot (the game-winner), it appeared prefer it was transferring in gradual movement, and when it went in, it felt like we had already gained.
“I don’t know tips on how to describe it. It was only a big-time shot.”
Following Williams’ shot and some timeouts, Bonneville defended the total size of the courtroom, forcing a shot from close to midcourt from Woods Cross’ Jaxon Smith that got here up brief because the buzzer sounded.
Lakers’ gamers rushed the ground in celebration, and Williams even took his celebration into the coed part, as he jumped into the arms of his fellow classmates.
Bonneville head coach Kyle Bullinger mentioned ending the sport, and the area season as an entire, in that trend couldn’t have been extra excellent.
“I can’t consider any higher story than for Jake Williams to return in and hit that shot,” Bullinger mentioned. “He brings the swagger to our group, and it was actually rewarding to see him hit that shot.
“It was about as dramatic an ending that you'll find for a area championship.”
Solely 4 gamers recorded factors for the Lakers, who used solely a seven man rotation. Jones, whom Bullinger mentioned ought to find yourself being the MVP of Area 5, completed with a team-high 15 factors. Junior level guard Bo Dixon chipped in 14, whereas Tesch and Williams scored 13 and 10, respectively.
The victory avenged a defeat suffered by the hands of the Wildcats three weeks prior. Had the Lakers secured a win within the earlier matchup, the championship would’ve already been clinched, however as an alternative, the groups collided of their closing common season sport with a 7-2 area document.
The Lakers had been in a position to restrict Woods Cross junior Mason Bendinger to 17 factors on the evening after he dropped 24 on them within the earlier matchup.
Bendinger was held to only 5 second-half factors, which was particularly spectacular contemplating he scored 10 factors within the fourth quarter alone to shut out Woods Cross’ victory the final time the groups met.
Although he wasn’t capable of finding as a lot success in Friday evening’s go-around, Bendinger nonetheless offered what ended up being the second-most spotlight worthy play of the evening when he jammed house an and-1 dunk halfway via the second quarter to tie the sport at 25.
The play ignited “Who’s your daddy?” chants from the Woods Cross scholar part.
“The man is a beast,” Williams mentioned of Bendinger. “He’s one of many higher gamers, if not one of the best participant, I’ve ever guarded.
“Late (within the second quarter) he put it proper on my head, however we contained him one of the best we may. We scouted him all week as a result of there’s no escaping gamers like him.”
The within play of Bendinger mixed with the skin prowess of Smith (15 factors on three made 3s), required Bonneville to dig deep defensively late within the sport, and its efficiency on that finish of the ground, coupled with clutch performs on offense, allowed the Lakers to safe the title-clinching win.
“Woods Cross is unbelievably proficient, they usually showcased that tonight,” Bullinger mentioned. “The sport that we performed (in Woods Cross) was similar to this sport. In that sport their guys made performs, and tonight our guys made performs. … Credit score to our youngsters for simply persevering with to battle.”