Vikings beat buzzer, Dons

PLEASANT GROVE — The Spanish Fork Dons and Pleasant Grove Vikings now have a greater appreciation for every single tick on the clock — even the 10th of a second ones.

Just before the buzzer sounded Friday night, Pleasant Grove's Brady Thurgood jumped high and caught a missed desperation shot as it glanced hard off the backboard, and quickly banked it back in as the buzzer sounded to give the Vikings a thrilling 77-75 come-from-behind win over the Dons in Region 4 boys basketball.

"I just kept listening, and I saw it hit the backboard and then heard the buzzer, so I knew it was good, and it was a very good feeling," Pleasant Grove coach Randy McAllister said.

The Dons, after blowing a 17-point third-quarter lead, actually tied the game seconds earlier 75-75 when Matt Gardner banked in a 3-pointer from the right wing. When Pleasant Grove called time-out after the basket, the clocked showed 5.3 seconds. However, the officials conferred and reset the clock at 6.6 seconds.

The Vikings inbounded the ball to guard LeSean Wilcox in the backcourt, who hurried down court and dished to C. J. Wilcox on the left baseline. As C.J. Wilcox tried to go up he lost control of the ball twice. Adam Nielson picked up the loose ball and quicky fired up a short banker, which bounded off the front of the rim into Thurgood's hands.

"I think Brady knew he didn't have any time to mess around, and he didn't," McAllister said.

The last-second loss was a tough pill for the Dons to swallow. They led for most of the contest.

"It's disappointing," Dons coach Mark Bailey said. "This was probably the best we've played all year. But we have nine more games to go and another very tough game on Wednesday (at home vs. Lone Peak), so we can't worry about it too much and need to move on."

For the first two and a half quarters Spanish Fork was getting the best of Pleasant Grove in every way. The Dons were scoring in the paint, in transition and hitting from outside. They were also causing fits for C. J. Wilcox whenever he tried to post or penetrate. The high-scoring guard made only three baskets in the first half.

Spanish Fork led by three after one, then stretched it to 16 late in the second before taking a 44-32 lead into intermission. With four minutes left in the third, following a basket by Zach Clayton and two free throws by Devin Nelson, the Dons led 56-39,

"For a while there I just didn't know how to make our team stop them from scoring," McAllister said. "They were just quicker than us and were getting a lot higher percentage of shots due to their good offense and our bad defense."