In a game that the Douglas boys' basketball team won in nearly every facet, the Galena Grizzlies somehow found a way to win the facet that matters the most.
Galena outscored the Tigers 10-2 during a three minute stretch late in the fourth quarter and then made the plays to win it in the final minute, escaping with a 56-55 win in the Northern 4A Regional title game at Spanish Springs High School Saturday night.
"It's tough to find words," Douglas coach Rob Streeter said. "I couldn't be more proud of their effort.
"This was a dream to get here. We talked so much during the offseason about getting to the next level and we knew it would take a lot of hard work to get here.
"It's no longer a dream. We're here. It's an expectation now that we will be competing for championships.
"I'm very dissappointed to see it end this way for all the seniors. They can walk proud. They lost the regional championship by one point. It's pretty hard to take right now, but they can be very proud of what they've done. They went 23-9 on the year and won the school's first playoff game in 12 years. They advanced to the championship game. We got a couple monkeys off our backs."
For a good majority of the game, it appeared that the Tigers would be able to do more than that.
Douglas led throughout, with the exception of 24 seconds in the second quarter and the deciding final 51 seconds of the game, playing in its first Northern 4A Regional title game.
Galena's Eric Maupin scored the last three points of the game, getting a putback with 1:34 left and sinking the front end of a pair of free throws with 51.7 seconds left to give Galena the 56-55 lead.
The Grizzlies knocked the ball out of bounds as Douglas attempted to bring it back down, and then trapped Mike Gransbery against the sideline with 26.4 seconds left, forcing a timeout.
Douglas decided to play for the last shot, and did a good job of working the ball around while draining the clock.
The ball spilled into the hands of junior guard Kevin Emm, who left his feet to take the shot with under five seconds left, but a Galena forward got a hand in front of it.
Emm readjusted in midair, doing a remarkable job to get the shot off in the clear. It looked true but the 10-footer bounced off the front of the rim.
Galena standout Luke Babbitt rebounded the ball and was immediately fouled, with 2 seconds left.
He missed his shot, Douglas' Keith Olson rebounded it and hurled a desperation shot toward the other end of the floor which bounced off the ceiling as the buzzer sounded.
It was quite a different ending from how the game started.
Douglas ran off a 10-2 run over the first three minutes of the game, stirring echoes of their stunning 25-0 run to open against Reno the night before.
Olson sandwiched a pair of Emm 3-pointers with a pair of putbacks, forcing Galena's first timeout of the game.
The Grizzlies fought their way back into the game with a 9-0 second-quarter run to take their first lead at 21-23.
That was short lived, however, as senior guard Mike Gransbery hit a 3-pointer less than 30 second later and Olson followed with two baskets. Gransbery followed a Galena 3-pointer with one of his own.
Babbitt brought Galena back to within four with a basket, but Olson came back down and drew a foul with 28 seconds left as his shot rolled in for the score.
He missed the shot, but David Laird grabbed the rebound and dished it back out to Gransbery, who hit yet another 3-pointer to put Douglas up 35-26.
Douglas kept a seven-point lead through the third quarter and pushed it to nine again with a basket from Emm to open the fourth.
The Tigers held that lead until six minutes remained, but Galena turned up the pressure on defense and made the most of a series of four turnovers.
The Grizzlies drew fouls on their next three trips down the floor, all afforded by Douglas turnovers, and converted four shots to go with a Tristan Hill basket, closing the score to 51-48.
Douglas was called for a backcourt violation and Babbitt hit a shot with 3:08 left to being the Grizzlies to within one at 51-50.
"They really turned up their pressure on defense and we just got a little tentative," Streeter said. "They stepped up and made the plays. Maupin had a couple of big rebounds at the end there and made the big shots. Babbitt had that 3-pointer. That was their experience showing in this type of environment."
Jeff Nady scored to put Douglas back up 53-50 but Babbitt hit a 3-pointer, his third of the game, to tie it at 2:37.
Emm hit a pair of free throws with 2:22 left, but Maupin hauled in a rebound on the other end and put it back to tie the game with 1:34 left.
He later drew the foul for the game-winning shot.
"We'll have high expectations for the younger kids returning next year," Streeter said. "We'll get back to work in a few weeks with the offseason. We had a really great offseason last year. It started watching Reno win the title. They really bought in to what we were trying to do and they really put in the work to get here."
Douglas finished its season with a 23-9 record overall, the best since the Tigers won the 2A state championship in 1979 with a 29-4 record.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
