By BUTCH HARMON
OWOSSO – They don’t call it March Madness for nothing.
Trailing by four points with 10 seconds remaining in the game, the Pewamo-Westphalia Pirates stunned Flint Beecher with five straight points to claim a 42-41 victory in the Class C state quarterfinals at Owosso.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Pewamo-Westphalia coach Luke Pohl said. “To accomplish this in this kind of atmosphere is unbelievable. I just told the kids to keep on playing and not quit. My guys just would not quit. I’m speechless. I can’t beleive it. The guys never quit, they just kept believing.”
Trailing 41-37 with 10 seconds remaining in the game, Pewamo-Westphalia’s Kyle Nurenberg drained a three-point shot to cut the Beecher lead to a single point. On the inbounds play, Pirate senior Nick Spitzley stole the ball in the corner off a trap and then drove in for a layup that gave Pewamo-Westphalia a 42-41 lead with 4.1 secondss remaining in the game.
“Coach just told us to keep playing,” Spitzley said. “He told us to keep playing and that our time would come. We doubled them in the corner and they threw a lazy pass. I grabbed it and went in and laid it in.”
Beecher tried a desperation half-court heave with second seconds remaining but the ball fall well short setting off a wild Pirate celebration.
“I’ve been coaching for 17 years and we finally made it to the Breslin,” Pohl said. “We’ve made it to the quarterfinals twice. This time we finally made it. I’m so proud of these guys. They never quit.”
Pewamo-Westphalia jumped out to an early 7-2 lead in the game before Beecher battled back to tie the game at 11-11 at the end of the first quarter.
Beecher took command of the game late in the second quarter when the Bucs hits three consecutive three-point shots as they went up 26-18 at halftime.
Pewamo-Westphalia began to chip away at the deficit early in the third quarter. Lane Simon scored the first eight Pirate points of the second half to help the Pirates tie the game at 28-28 by the end of the third quarter.
Beecher regained the lead in the fourth quarter and was up 36-31 midway through the fourth quarter before the Pirates made one final charge.
Spitzley led the Pewamo-Westphalia offense with 18 points while Simon added 11 points. Adam Wesley finished with seven points and Nurenberg added four points.