Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The York Institute Dragons fought and scrapped for 32 full minutes on Thursday, earning a last-second 47-45 win over Jackson County in the Region 3/AA Championship.
Jackson County led for most of the game, beginning in the first quarter where they took a 16-7 lead on the strength of two Hayden Stacy three-pointers. The latter of which beat the buzzer to give the Blue Devils all the momentum heading into the second quarter.
York’s offense began to get on track in the second quarter, cutting the deficit to just 28-24 at the halftime break.
The Dragons finally knotted the score at 30-all on a Jon Heddings breakaway layup, but JCHS’ Ramon Cuevas gave the Blue Devils a 34-31 lead going into the fourth on a leaning floater at the horn.
The two teams battled back-and-forth in the decisive period, but it was all tied up after a Nic Smith jumper with 34.7 seconds remaining in regulation. After a Jackson County travel, York got the ball right back and though they wouldn’t score right away, a second Blue Devil travel gave them possession with 3.2 seconds left.
That set it up for Blaine York to be the hero, as he hit a fadeaway jumper as time expired to give the Dragons the 47-45 victory in the region title game.
Heddings and Smith each finished with a team-leading 14 points for head coach Rodney Pile.
“That’s the one thing this team has had all year: a bunch of competitors,” Pile said. “This is a good bunch of kids, they play hard and get after it…I just couldn’t have asked for any better senior leadership in my first year as the head coach.”
York’s last-second shot accounted for the only two points he scored all night, and the plan wasn’t even to get him the ball. That didn’t change the fact that he was ready when his number was called and his coach applauded his concentration on the shot.
“We were trying to go to Nic Smith,” Pile said. “The play was for Blaine to go off of two screens and then go to the corner and try to find Nic for a lob play…they kind of sniffed it out. He didn’t have a good look when he caught it, but the concentration was priceless.”
The Dragons will now get to play a home substate game against Pearl-Cohn on Monday, something that is huge for Pile’s team since they don’t have to travel.
“You’re playing in the gym you’ve practiced in for 365 days,” Pile said. “The reverse of that is you’re going to get on a bus and ride two hours…this gives us a little bit of an advantage playing at home versus playing on the road. You can’t take anything for granted, so you have to make sure you’re ready to play Monday night.”
