Game decided at the very end

PLAINS - Tuesday night’s play-in game between the Plains Horsemen and the Troy Trojans was decided in the last minute of the game. The winning team would be going to the tournament in Columbia Falls on Saturday.

The stands went crazy the whole night, and the Trotters were there leading the supporters in chants and cheers.

Troy scored the first two points, but the Horsemen quickly recovered and controlled the board the rest of the first quarter. By the middle mark, the Horsemen had racked up eight points, while Troy only scored two. From the get go the stands showed their support, yelling the entire time. By the end of the first quarter the score was 14 to 9, going to the Horsemen.

The Horsemen stayed in the lead in the second quarter, but Troy started closing in. It looked like the Horsemen had a strong lead in the first half of the quarter, leading by eight points, but something happened. In the last half of the quarter Troy closed the gap, and narrowed the score to, Horsemen with 24, Troy with 21.

The game was beginning to look like it was going to be a close one, with each team looking for any reserves they might have to push ahead.

Coming back from half-time, Troy scored the first two points in the third and came within striking distance of overcoming the Horsemen. Plains felt the pressure and charged ahead, scoring multiple shots consecutively before Troy could score again. By the 4:00 minute mark, the Horsemen held a seven point lead over their opponents. Troy came back by the end of the quarter and again the teams were neck and neck. The Horsemen had 37, Troy with 32. The place was going wild and the tenseness could be felt. No one knew for sure who was going to win.

To start of the fourth, Troy scored first, making the score 37 to 34. Troy then scored a single free throw making the score an even closer 37 to 35. And again, Troy was given another two free throws and the score was tied 37 to 37. Everyone was standing and going crazy. Then, for a moment, Troy led by two points. Then the Horsemen passed Troy. Troy caught up and tied again with a free throw at 2:04 minutes left on the clock. The two teams fought hard at the end. With 11 seconds on the clock the score was 44 to 42, Plains in the lead. Troy scored two points. Kyle Revier got two free throws and scored both taking the Horsemen’s score to 46. Troy had 44. It was Troy’s ball, but they fouled Plains again, and number 10 got two free throws, scoring both and finishing the game at 48 to 44.

Coach Benson could be seen yelling and jumping with joy when the buzzer went off. “It was a hard fought win. Troy, they played tough. We just had one of those games we knew it would be close and stuck with what we wanted to do and got some fouls at the end to get some free throws... and that is all we can ask for in a play-off game, to go to districts,” said Benson after the cheering stands began to leave and he got a moment to breathe.   

On Saturday, in Columbia Falls the Horsemen fell to Big Fork, during the 7-B tournament. Eureka defeated the Horsemen, 39-32 after ending the third quarter tied at 25. The Horsemen will still be going to the Western B tournament as the no. 4 seed.

Ryan Ovitt scored 13 points, leading the team. Kyle Revier followed up with five points and Brenen Abromeit with four points.

Coach Benson said, “We couldn’t keep the stretch down the line... that has been sort of our M.O. this past year.” He feels the team can match anyone else and that the boys still played very hard.

Despite the setbacks Benson does still feel well about the upcoming divisionals. “The boys feel good and confident,” he says.