One point and mere seconds were all that prevented Big Sandy from entering the District 9C boys basketball tournament on a four-game winning streak.
The Pioneers followed a 56-38 win at winless Turner Friday with an upset 52-51 loss to Chester-Joplin-Inverness to close the regular season on their home floor.
Though final bracket pairings were unavailable at press time, Big Sandy coach Thomas Dilworth anticipated a rematch with the Hi-Line Hawks Wednesday to open the tourney in Havre.
"Wednesday, when we're done playing, they won't remember tonight," Dilworth said.
It is a memory the Pioneers probably won't mind relinquishing.
After building an 11-7 lead to open the game, the Pioneers surrendered a 13-0 run and the Hawks held on to a 27-20 lead at halftime. After an even third quarter, they still had a 38-31 advantage going into the fourth quarter.
Dilworth's displeasure with his team's performance would then be heard in the opposite corner of the gymnasium as players huddled around the bench.
"We were not playing defense. Not boxing out. Not rebounding," Dilworth said. "In the end, we played 10 minutes of basketball in a 32-minute game."
The Pioneers responded to the wake-up call and played inspired basketball to begin the final period, fueled in no small part by three consecutive steals by freshman Kody Strutz.
"When he gets going, he's a ballplayer," Dilworth said.
A corner three-pointer by senior Ryan Roth with 5 minutes, 45 seconds to play, capped a 10-1 run by Big Sandy and granted the Pioneers their first lead since the first quarter.
The lead would change hands three more times before the final buzzer sounded. Senior Clint Darlington put back a Strutz miss with 1:10 left on the clock for a 50-49 Big Sandy edge. An odd moment followed when C-J-I came out of a timeout with six players on the court, earning a technical foul.
Roth sank one of a pair of free throws but Big Sandy could not convert on the ensuing offensive possession. When C-J-I got the ball back, they patiently passed the ball around the perimeter until finding Kyle Harmon for the game-winning three-pointer at the elbow opposite his bench.
The final 5 seconds of regulation were a microcosm for the whole night's frustrations. Attempts to in-bound the ball resulted in three timeouts called, a swatted pass that reduced the clock to 3.3 seconds and finally a pass to Roth for an off-balance 17-footer at the buzzer that did not fall.
Roth led all scorers for the night with 20 points and Darlington added 16. Strutz, brother Kade and senior Jeremiah Genereux added 5 apiece. Andrew Woods had 15 for C-J-I and Caden Woods added 13.
"We probably shot about 20 percent tonight," Dilworth said. "And we still lost by only one point ... on Wednesday, we get (injured junior) Parker (Proulx) back and he's an excellent defender."
Against Turner, junior Kade Strutz had a game-high 17 points while Roth and Darlington added 14 each.
