BOISE - One year after grinding their way to a state title, the Grangeville Bulldogs picked up right where they left off- albeit with a little more dramatics.
With their talisman on the bench after fouling out midway through the fourth quarter, the gritty, gutty Bulldogs were forced to rally in both regulation and overtime - surviving a waved-off buzzer beater along the way - before putting away Wendell 77-65 in a thrilling double-overtime nightcap at the Idaho Class 2A state tournament at Boise's Capital High on Thursday.
Grangeville will face Firth in a semifinal matchup at 7 p.m. PST today.
"Wendell is very physical. Easily as physical as anyone we've played all year, and athletic," Grangeville coach Skip Hall said. "We knew that too. We knew they were going to be way better than their record (11-14 entering the game). I was really proud of the way we came back.
"The kids executed well down the stretch. We did not have a good first half at all, but the second half was good."
The second half may have been good, but overtime was an instant classic.
Deadlocked at 58-58 after 32 minutes, Wendell took the first lead of the extra period when senior forward Cabbage Sandoval hit a pair of free throws to put the Trojans up 60-58.
Grangeville (20-5) responded by taking a 62-60 lead on a Jasper Sabatino putback and Jake Stokes bucket.
As it was throughout the game, Wendell then replied with four straight points before Grangeville's Josh Dame produced the third tie of the period on a layup with about 40 seconds left.
Content to hold onto the ball for the final shot, Wendell worked the rock around the arc for roughly 25 seconds before Grangeville's Austin Parks was able to steal possession for the Bulldogs.
Charging to the basket with a head of steam, Parks' contested layup attempt rolled off the rim and was rebounded by Wendell's Johnny Lancaster, who tossed a long outlet pass to Alex Swainston.
As the final seconds ticked down, and with no Bulldog within 40 feet of him, Swainston converted on a game-winning layup - or so it seemed.
Drowned out by the pandemonium of the final play was a timeout called by Wendell coach Sam Kelsey before the outlet pass was made.
"He called a timeout before they passed the ball," Hall said. "It was the right call."
Swainston pulled no punches about the winner-that-wasn't.
"That one's probably going to haunt me for a while," the senior guard said. "I thought I won it."
After taking a moment to clear things up, officials put six seconds back on the clock and allowed the Trojans to inbound the ball back on their own half of the court.
Sprinting down the floor with time running out, the Trojans failed to get off a shot when Parks, who was doing his best to act as if he was blocking a field goal, dove face first with both arms extended and stuffed an attempted pass as time expired and ushered in an additional four minutes.
"They had the last possession and we get the steal," Hall said. "Parks, he goes to the basket and you can't fault him for taking that shot. Then they ended up having the ball with six seconds left and that was a lot more time than I wanted on the clock. The kids, they played good help defense and when they had the opportunity, they trapped it.
"They needed to play a little cleaner tonight, but to get a 12-point double-overtime win, that's a heck of a job by these guys."
Having already given up several leads in both regulation and overtime, the Bulldogs ensured that the second extra period would be the last as they jumped out to a three-point lead off the bat - eventually outscoring the Trojans 13-1 in the frame.
Six of the 13 points came from Alex Koberstein while five were engineered at the free throw line by Stokes.
In all, Stokes finished with 12 points and Koberstein had nine. The Bulldogs were led by Dame's 18 points. Parks tallied 12 while Michael Wilson had 11 before fouling out with just under four minutes left to play in the fourth.
"(Alex) Koberstein played a heck of a game for us," Hall said. "He's athletic. He missed two years with injuries and he stepped up and played a heck of a game tonight.
"I thought Josh (Dame) did what Josh does. And (Austin) Parks, we weren't sure if he'd come out tonight. Our bench played super tonight."
After leading for much of the game, Grangeville almost missed out on a chance to defend its title when Wendell caught fire and charged ahead 51-45 with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter.
However, the Bulldogs got several key buckets down the stretch from Wilson, Parks and Dame and managed to come up with a critical defensive stop on the Trojans' final possession to force the first extra session.
"These kids, to our credit, are pretty inexperienced," Hall said. "They're not now, but our first half of the season we had a lot of growing pains. We have one returning starter, but they've come a long way this year.
"But you win a first-round game at State, you can't ask for anything more - especially in double overtime. The kids sucked it up and played great."
Wendell (11-15)
Issac Nebeker 0 0-0 0, Logan Bowers 3 2-7 8, Kaleb Bowers 0 0-0 0, Alex Swainston 3 2-3 10, Johnny Lancaster 5 7-10 17, Jordan Chapman 0 0-0 0, Chaz Nebeker 0 0-0 0, Jorge Valera 3 1-2 7, Hunter Laudert 4 1-2 10, Cabbage Sandoval 5 2-4 13, Josh Rocha 0 0-0 0, Shyll Zimmerman 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 15-28 65.
Grangeville (20-4)
Austin Parks 5 0-0 12, Jasper Sabatino 3 2-3 9, Josh Dame 7 4-7 18, Michael Wilson 4 2-5 11, Quaid Blankenship 0 0-1 0, Layton Harris 2 0-0 6, Max Cawley 0 0-0 0, Alex Koberstein 2 5-9 9, Jake Stokes 2 7-8 12, Tanner Higgins 0 0-0 0, Dylan Canaday 0 0-0 0, Garrett Kennedy 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 20-33 77.
Wendell 11 10 17 20 6 1-65
Grangeville 13 10 16 19 6 13-77
Three Point Goals - Swainston 2, Laubert, Sandoval, Parks 2, Sabatino, Wilson, Harris, Stokes. Total Fouls - Wendell 27, Grangeville 22. Fouled out - L. Bowers, Swainston, Wilson.