Boys wrap season with pair of buzzer-beating wins

WALLA WALLA–The Dayton-Waitsburg Boys Basketball Team finished the home stretch 2019-2020 campaign with not one, not two, but three heart-pounding buzzer-beater wins, the third coming as time expired in the February 4 game at DeSales Tuesday.

DW's Dylan Bledsoe sank a three pointer with seconds to play to give the team its third cardiac win since January 21 when Monte Pettichord's long shot scuttled the Pomeroy Pirates, and last week, when Mason Finney greased one through the net for a walk-off against Liberty Christian.

The program finishes the season with a 2-10 league mark, a 4-15 record overall and an eighth-place finish in the EWAC.

"It's too bad," Head Coach Roy Ramirez commented, "but it's a good way to end it and look forward to next year. They'd really started clicking."

At DeSales last Tuesday, Dayton-Waitsburg rallied with 24 fourth-quarter points, chipping away at the DeSales lead until trading leads with a few minutes to play.

The Irish had a 43-39 lead with about a minute to play when DW hit a three pointer to pare the difference to one point, 43-42. Dayton-Waitsburg scored the go-ahead bucket for a 44-43 lead.

Finney fouled and the Irish edged back ahead 45-44, but DW answered for a 46-45 lead.

Bledsoe fouled and the Irish free throw tied it 46-46. Coach Ramirez called a time out and sketched the final strategy. The offense swung the perimeter, found Bledsoe and the ball was in the air when the horn blared the end of the game and Bledsoe swished it.

Last week in Waitsburg, DW was trailing Liberty Christian by two with under 10 seconds to play, when Mason Finney drained a three pointer at the buzzer to give DW its first league win in the combined program's history, and the first league win in three years.

The exciting finish of the Liberty Christian game began when Dayton-Waitsburg trailed by five going into the fourth quarter. Finney and LC's Grant McClure, who scored a game-high 31 for Liberty, were battling it out on the maple.

Starting the fourth quarter, sharpshooter Finney swished a trey to lift DW to just two points behind, 37-35, but McClure countered with a pair of buckets for a six-point Patriot lead, 41-35.

Colton VanBlaricom popped in a baseline jumper on an inbounds play, cutting the difference to four, but McClure drained his third three pointer to make it a seven-point ballgame at 5:07.

VanBlaricom came through again, this time lofting a three and nailing it, shaving Liberty's lead to four points. DW got the ball back and Finney shot from the arc, missed, and Dylan Bledsoe was fouled on the put-back attempt. Bledsoe sank both free throws, reducing the difference to two, 44-42.

The Patriots again failed to score and Dayton-Waitsburg rebounded, and Josiah White made a move, got fouled, then went to the line for a one-and-one. He hit the front end but missed the second, and Liberty rebounded.

McClure missed a field goal at 2:43 and DW got the ball back, trailing 44-43. Finney got the ball and was fouled, going to the line for two shots. He split the pair, knotting the score 44-44.

Patriot Curtis Morgan scored next, firing and making a long shot for a three-point Liberty lead. On the other end, White missed on a drive through the key with 1:40 on the clock, and the ball went back in Liberty's hands.

At the Patriot end, Cody Dunham took a McClure assist for two and with 1:25 to play, Liberty led by five, 49-44.

DW's Wyatt Costello put up a shot and missed, Finney rebounded, shot and missed and DW got one more try, but all three missed the mark at around the one-minute mark.

VanBlaricom made a steal and was fouled on his race upcourt, making one of two to cut the difference to four points, 49-45, with 36 seconds to play.

LC couldn't convert to pad the lead and DW attacked, Tayven Seney going up for two with :20 on the clock, score 49-47.

The Patriots' Aiden Lesser was fouled by Bledsoe, and went to the line for a one-and-one. He missed the front end and DW rebounded. The ball was passed into the hands of last week's Pomeroy buzzer-beater-maker Monte Pettichord, but his trey try missed. Finney rebounded the ball on the right side of the key, dribbled out to the arc, spun and fired the shot with one second to go and sealed the 50-49 win.

"There was not much going through my head," Finney said of the winning shot. "I just knew that there was three seconds left on the clock, saw the ball go up, I tried to jump as high as I could and shoot the ball.

"It felt really good," he said. "I mean, first league win in three years, it's going to feel good."

At Columbia-Burbank February 1, the fourth-place Jaguars (5-5 EWAC, 12-7 overall) put up two big quarters to waltz away with a 53-26 victory over DW.

For DW, Finney led with 10 points and Shawn Evans put in seven. Logan Mercado scored a game high 17.

The Jags jumped to a 12-3 first-quarter lead and never looked back. DW struggled offensively until the fourth quarter, going in the final stanza trailing 45-12. They rebounded a bit with a 14-8 fourth quarter.

Hosting EWAC third place Columbia at Waitsburg on Friday, Jan. 31, Dayton-Waitsburg crept back into the game in the fourth quarter but the final run fizzled and the Coyotes of Columbia-Burbank slinked away with a 45-40 win.

Columbia opened with hot shooting from the arc, Justin Koopman, Dominic Percifield and Peja Kinsey each nailing threes as the Coyotes jumped to a 17-11 lead. Finney and VanBlaricom both drained three pointers while DW battled the Columbia full-court press.

Both teams iced up in the second quarter with DW's White and VanBlaricom scoring, but Columbia's Koopman swishing a trey and getting a bucket and a free throw from Dylan Frimodt, plus a gifter from Percifield for the uncharacteristic 7-4 second quarter and a 24-15 Columbia lead at half.

Both teams played evenly through the third with Finney hitting four, Costello making a bucket and Bledsoe hitting a three to count for the majority of DW's scoring.

Trailing by 10, 36-26 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, DW's Bledsoe nailed a three and a field goal, and along with buckets by Finney and Pettichord, outscored the Coyotes 14-9 in the final stanza, but were unable to close it up in the end game.

Finney led DW scorers with a game-high 11 and Bledsoe made 10.

Dayton-Waitsburg 49, DeSales 46 (2-4)

DW 11 7 7 24-49

DeS 8 10 14 14-46

Stats unavailable.

Columbia 45, Dayton-Waitsburg 40 (1/31)

DW 11 4 11 14-40

Col 17 7 12 9-45

Dayton-Waitsburg (40) Colton VanBlaricom 5, Josiah White 6, Mason Finney 11, Monte Pettichord 2, Wyatt Costello 2, Dylan Bledsoe 10, Tayven Seney 2. Free throws: 6/10-60%. FG(2)-10/34-29%. FG(3)-4/14-29%.

Columbia (45) Dylan Frimodt 3, Brennan Wickstrom 7, Justin Koopman 6, Dominic Percifield 10, Peja Kinsey 7, Creed Pariera 5, Alex Avalos 8. Free throws: 6/16-38%. FG(2)-13/32-41%. FG(3)-5/15-33%.

TriCities Prep 53, Dayton-Waitsburg 26 (2/1)

DW 3 4 5 14-26

TCP 12 8 25 8-53

Dayton-Waitsburg (26) Shawn Evans 7, Josiah White 3, Mason Finney 10, Monte Pettichord 1, Dylan Bledsoe 3, Keon Lindley 2. Free throws: 9/16-56%. FG(2)-7/28-25%. FG(3)-1/8-13%.

TriCities Prep (53) L. Amato 2, J. White 10, J. Levy 4, L. Mercado 17, A. Hiett 5, A. Baerlocher 7, D. Maiuri 8. Free throws: 9/12-75%. FG(2)-13/30-43%. FG(3)-4/13-31%.

Dayton-Waitsburg 50, Liberty Christian 49 (1/29)

DW 13 10 9 18-50

LC 8 15 14 12-49

Dayton-Waitsburg (50) Colton VanBlaricom 9, Joe White 11, Mason Finney 16, Monte Pettichord 3, Wyatt Costello 2, Dylan Bledsoe 7, Tayven Seney 2. Free throws: 10/17-59%.

Liberty Christian (49) Curtis Morgan 3, Keegan Bishop 3, Aiden Lesser 7, Cody Dunham 2, Mike Connolly 3, Grant McClure 31. Free throws: 7/13-54%.