PORTLAND — Down 11 points at halftime to a team that seems incapable of missing 3-point shots can be a daunting task, but a Wells teams seeking its first trip to a regional final since 1984 didn’t mind another challenge.
Owen Berry’s 15-foot jump shot from the right elbow with eight seconds left capped No. 3 Wells’ rally and gave the Warriors a 53-52 win over No. 2 Spruce Mountain in the Class B South semifinals at Cross Insurance Arena on Thursday night.
“We were just trying to get a quick shot,” Berry said. “They put the ball in my hands to either make a play or shoot it. I had the open shot and I took it. I’ve been practicing that shot a lot on Sundays in the gym and I felt confident.”
Spruce Mountain had one last possession to tie or win, and Austin Darling found an open Andrew Shaw in the left corner, but his shot hit the back iron as the final horn sounded.
Berry finished with 15 points to lead the Warriors (15-5), who will face No. 1 Yarmouth in the regional final at 2:45 p.m. on Saturday. Tyler Dewey added 12 points.
“I think defense got us back in it,” Berry said. “We knew we couldn’t get it all back in one play. We had to go basket by basket to come back.”
Darling led Spruce Mountain (16-4) with 15 points and seven assists. Caulin Parker added 14 points despite being limited by a shoulder injury he aggravated in the quarterfinals.
Wells started to chip away at the halftime deficit almost immediately when Dewey started the second half with the first of his three 3-pointers in the third quarter.
“Tyler Dewey’s three 3s coming out in the third quarter gave us some easy buckets (later on),” Wells coach Troy Brown said. “I don’t think they were ready for him. They hadn’t seen him shoot like that. A senior leader hit three big 3s for us and cut into the lead. I think that gave the kids just that little bit that it took to say, ‘Hey, we’re definitely not done.'”
The Warriors started to control the boards, too, en route to a big 24-13 advantage, including 10-2 on the offensive glass.
“Our defense and our rebounding was bad. Our decision-making wasn’t very good,” Spruce Mountain coach Scott Bessey said. “I thought Austin was dynamic in the first half, but those gaps, those blow-bys that he was getting in the first half, they did a good job, they weren’t there in the second half. Offensively, we struggled big-time in the second half. Credit to them. They got after us. They were physical.”
The Warriors pulled within four on a Berry hoop late in the quarter, but Noah Preble (12 points) took a little bit of steam out of them with a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to put the Phoenix up, 47-40, heading to the fourth.
The Phoenix went 11-for-20 from 3-point land Thursday night and broke the 1994 Mountain Valley Falcons’ regional tournament record for 3-pointers in a tournament with 23. But they only attempted three in the final eight-plus minutes.
Wells quickly tied it with seven in a row to start the fourth. A Parker 3 put Spruce back up, 50-47, but Wells rallied again to tie it when Deandre Woods put back his own miss with 1:17 left.
Riley Dempsey’s free throw gave the Warriors their first lead since early in the second quarter, with 47 seconds remaining. Parker made it 52-51 Phoenix with a fake hand-off followed by a runner off the glass with 24 seconds left.
“I scouted that play three years ago when we played them in the playoffs, and I was yelling to Cam (Cousins) it was going to be a fake hand-off,” Brown said. “But I thought it was a great play and a great shot by (Parker). That was a tough shot.”
“He’s nowhere near 100 percent. He’s playing with one arm” Bessey said of Parker. “We had to put an additional strap on his shoulder. I mean, he can’t even lift his left arm up past (waist level). But, no excuses. I thought he played great.”
Darling had the hot hand in the first half, scoring all 15 of his points. The lead changed hands six times and there were four ties before the Phoenix raced out with a 15-3 run to end the first half.
Cousins’ hoop gave the Warriors their last lead until the fourth at 20-19. The Phoenix scored the next 12 in a row, sparked by a Darling 3-pointer. Mason Shink and Jordan Daigle also hit from the beyond the arc as the Phoenix rode a 34-23 lead into halftime.
“My kids … were relentless the whole game,” Brown said. “Even if we had lost, I would have still been so proud of them, and it still would have been one of the gutsiest performance I’ve seen as a coach.”
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