With the score tied and the clock winding down, Soldotna guard Bloomer Blossom's shot was heading well short of the rim and a marathon battle between Soldotna and Dimond appeared destined for a third overtime Monday at Sullivan.
But then Blaine Carver sliced into the lane and in one slick motion caught the ball and laid it into the hoop just before the buzzer, giving Soldotna a 78-76 double overtime victory in the rematch of last season's Class 4A boys championship game.
"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," Carver said. "It's something you always dream about when you are little. I saw Boomer put the shot up with two seconds to go, and I knew I just had to go up after it."
Carver's shot sent the Soldotna players running toward their bench, arms raised in jubilation, while Dimond players crumpled to the floor, stunned at the sudden ending.
"That was a hell of a play," Dimond coach Rob Galosich said. "But we should have boxed him out. We just left him come in."
Dimond took a 76-74 lead with 64 seconds to play in the second overtime on an inside hoop from sophomore Ryden Hines, and then Carver took over.
The senior guard hit a runner in the lane with 40 second left to tie the game and then, despite playing with four fouls, lunged for a steal at midcourt and managed to grab the ball just long enough for Soldotna coach Matt Johnson to call a timeout.
The Stars ran the clock down for a final shot, but weren't able to get off a quality attempt against the Dimond defense, settling for an awkward shot by Blossom that didn't have a chance to go in until Carver helped it along.
"That was a nice play. You have to give him credit for that," said Hines, who finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds. "It was a nice read on his part. He knew that it was short, and he got to the ball to put it in."
Dimond, which beat Soldotna 55-52 in overtime in last year's championship contest, never trailed in the first or second overtime until Carver's putback.
The final basket was the final remarkable play in a game that saw Soldotna take control with a 3-point flurry from sophomore forward Evan Withrow. Dimond frantically rallied to force overtime behind the inside play of Hines and Soldotna force a second overtime when Withrow grabbed an offense rebound, was fouled, and hit two free throws.
"I can't say enough about the heart our kids showed," Johnson said. "There were a couple of opportunities where they could've put their heads down, but they didn't."
With Hines dominating inside and with guards Dylan Lauwers, Josh Samuels and JJ Jack-Nixon slicing to the basket for easy buckets, Dimond appeared to take control midway through the third quarter, building an eight-point advantage.
Then Withrow caught fire.
He nailed five 3-point baskets in the final three minutes of the quarter, sparking a 20-4 run that gave Soldotna a 54-45 advantage.
Withrow drained 8 of 10 attempts from beyond the arc and junior forward Josh Barnes added three 3-pointers as the Stars went 14 of 28 from the 3-point line.
"He was just hitting everything he shot," Carver said. "We started looking for him every time we brought the ball down the court."
Dimond's defense had been designed to stop Blossom and Carver, but Soldotna made the Lynx pay for backing off the outside shooters.
"What we tried to do was make somebody else beat us and unfortunately someone else did," Galosich said.
That someone was Withrow, who finished with a game-high 29 points off the bench.
"Dimond played great and their defense was terrific," Johnson said. "They made life very tough for us. I think they were going to live or die, stopping Boomer. If they lost, it was going to have to be the inexperienced role players that were going to have to step up and make the shots."
Soldotna pushed the lead to 60-51 on an inside bucket by Blossom with 2:56 to play then Dimond stormed back behind Hines. He converted a pair of 3-point plays and calmly swished two free throws with four seconds to play as Dimond rallied from a nine-point deficit to force the first overtime.
The sophomore set up the game-tying free throws by punching loose an offensive rebound and diving for the ball with two Soldotna players. Hines was the recipient of a dubious foul called on the loose-ball scramble and went to the line with a chance to force overtime.
He sank the first free throw and then, after a Soldotna timeout, he sank the second.
"I wanted the ball," Hines said. "It was definitely in my head when he called time out, I didn't want anybody to tell me anything. I just tried to concentrate. I was pretty confident."
The Stars wore dour expressions at the end of regulation and when Jack-Nixon converted a three-point play in the first overtime to give Dimond the early lead the game looked like it could be slipping away until Blossom drained a 3-pointer to tie the game back up.
Soldotna 14 9 22 18 9 6 -- 78
Dimond 14 16 11 22 9 4 -- 76
Soldotna -- Story 3, Blossom 9, Jackson 2, Carver 16, Stilchen 7, Smithwick 3, Withrow 29, Barnes 9.
Dimond -- Jack-Nixon 8, Lauwers 21, Romo 4, Samuels 10, Bolling 10, Bennett 4, Adams 1, Hines 23, Carter 5.
Colony 54, Bartlett 53
Colony senior Hayden Summers' only basket of the game, on an offensive rebound and putback with 14 second remaining, lifted Colony to a 54-53 victory over Bartlett.
"As long as the team wins, I don't care if I don't score any points," Summers said.
A final 3-point attempt at the buzzer by the Golden Bear's Malik King barely missed.
"I felt like it was going in," King said.
Bartlett rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to take a late lead on a basket by Matt Johnson with 35 seconds left. Johnson grabbed the rebound of a missed 3-point shot by Cyrus Chenault for his only points of the game.
Scott Herman led Colony with 16 points and John Palmer added 14.
Damon Sherman-Newsome led Bartlett with 16 points and Malike King added 14.
Bartlett 17 10 12 14 -- 53
Colony 13 14 20 7 -- 54
Colony -- Eisenhower 5, Turner 2, McCann 2, Palmer 14, Herman 16, Depriest 5, Ray 8, Summers 2.
Bartlett -- Chenault 6, Blount-O'Connor 9, King 14, Harris 6, Sherman-Newsome 16, Johnson 2.
West 78, Lathrop 47
Lathrop hunt with West for one quarter then the Eagles soared to an easy 78-47 first-round victory.
The contest was tied 13-13 at the end of the first.
Devon Bookert led four Eagles in double figures with 17 points. Tom Feeney added 156, Justin Kauffman scored 13 and Jalil Abdul-Bassitt finished with 10. West had 10 players score.
Lathrop was paced by the 19 points of Keith Mays.
Lathrop 13 10 15 9 -- 47
West 13 22 25 18 -- 78
West -- Panoam 2, Garrett-Queen 3, Bookert 17, Branch 2, Kauffman 13, Brown 5, Abdul-Bassitt 10, WYceh 2, Rus 2, Feeney 16, Harris 6.
Lathrop -- Streeter 1, Green 9, Dieringer 6, Ballard 3, Mays 19, Hamilton 7, Odutoia 2.
Wasilla 69, Juneau 46
Wasilla rolled to an easy opening-round win over Juneau, racing to a 36-17 halftime lead en route to a 69-46 victory.
Cody Pfeifer led the Warriors with 19 points, and Drew Ford contributed 14.
Tony Yadao led Juneau with a 15-point effort.
Juneau 9 8 8 21 -- 46
Wasilla 20 16 13 20 -- 69
Wasilla -- Quenga 1, Mock 4, Kuiper 7, Stahle 7, Bydron 2, Pfeifer 19, Devine 9, Ford 14, green 6.
Juneau -- Gozelski 5, Saviers 2, Yadao 15, Wilson 5, DeRocher 4, Calloway 2, Gross 4, Tupou 9.
By RICHARD LARSON
rlarson@adn.com