Semoball

Levi Boyer's buzzer-beater lifts Redbirds

ELLSINORE — Levi Boyer rose just a little higher than everyone else.

The East Carter big man stood underneath his own basket and leaped inches higher than the Doniphan defenders on either side of him, to earn a game-winning tip-in that barely beat the buzzer and Doniphan, 58-56.

“I’ve never been pushed around so much. Literally, everybody took turns pushing me over,” Boyer said.

Tied with 3 minutes left in the game, Doniphan’s Orie Owen drove, jumped, and found Levi Rawling under the basket for an easy basket.

The Dons then got a 3-on-2 break, and Nolan Czerwonka passed to Rawling, who was fouled on the shot and added a free throw.

The Redbirds followed with a free throw as the clock ticked past 2 minutes, and Boyer, who finished with 14 points, tied the game on East Carter’s next possession.

East Carter's Levi Boyer (32) tips in a game-winning shot before the buzzer against Doniphan on Thursday in Ellsinore.
DAILY AMERICAN REPUBLIC/Scott Borkgren

After an empty possession by Doniphan, East Carter called a timeout with a minute and change remaining.

The offense worked the ball to Boyer in the corner, and he drove right and finished.

Doniphan found Ethan Jones, who finished with 19 points, off a screen, he pump-faked and drove, but missed the layup.

The Redbirds got the ball past halfcourt when the Dons trapped and forced a turnover with 30 seconds left.

Off an inbounds play, Doniphan got the ball to Owen, and he scored inside with seconds left before East Carter got the ball past midcourt and called one last timeout.

With 10 seconds on the clock, the Redbirds got the ball to Preston Golden, who led East Carter with 16 points, and he drove down the lane and had his off-balance layup blocked out of bounds.

“There at the end, we felt like (Preston) was our best option to get it to, and we kind of passed it around and ended up turning it over,” East Carter coach Jordan Penn said. “Luckily, this team has been playing defense the first part of the year and we were tough enough to get a stop down there. “

With 4.5 seconds left and the ball under their own basket, the Redbirds couldn’t find Golden underneath and passed out to the wing for a catch-and-shoot 3.

It missed straight up off the rim, and Boyer was able to rise above two Doniphan defenders for the game-winning tip-in that barely beat the buzzer.

“I thought (the 3) was going in, so I was positioned to celebrate already, and then it happened to fall in my hands and I put it back up,” Boyer said. “I just know to crash the boards.”

Max Owen added 15 points for Doniphan.

“I told (the team) to remember the feeling they have in their gut because we are going to see (East Carter) again. It hurts right now, but we’re going to have another chance. East Carter is a really good basketball team, we’re a really good basketball team, and that was a heck of a game,” Doniphan coach Daniel Cagle said.

Tied at 8-all in the first quarter, East Carter steadily went on an 11-point run that stretched across five minutes between the first and second quarters.

The Redbirds were only ahead by two after the end of the first quarter despite Doniphan not scoring in the final four minutes.

Logan Copeland then started the second with East Carter’s first 3 of the game, and Golden followed with a dunk.

Doniphan, down 15-8 and going on five minutes without a point, called a timeout.

But out of the break, East Carter poked away a steal and Golden threw down another dunk.

Boyer polished off the run with a putback.

Orie Owen later got a three-point play for the Dons that ended East Carter’s run with Doniphan’s first points in nearly eight minutes.

Doniphan was trailing 13 with two minutes left in the first half. Czerwonka scored, and after an East Carter free throw, Rawling got a putback to cut the lead to 10.

Jones later sank a 3 just before the buzzer to cut the lead to 30-23 at halftime. Jones kept his hot streak going in the second half and his back-to-back buckets cut the lead to a point, capping a 13-2 run by Doniphan.

Jones had 14 of his 19 points in the third quarter.

He added a 3 midway through the third quarter that put Doniphan ahead for the first time since the first quarter.

After a couple more lead changes, Jones got the hot hand and the Dons fed him until the buzzer.

He rolled off a screen and popped and 3. Then came off another for a long two on Doniphan’s next possession.

The Dons got a steal, and instead of the contested layup, Czerwonka threw over his shoulder to Max Owen who finished to put Doniphan ahead 46-38.

“(Jones) wasn’t hitting anything in the first half,” Cagle said. “He came out in the second half, and he was shooting a lot of tough shots … everything he put up was going in, in the third quarter especially.”

The Dons had the ball out of bounds late, and they again drew up a play to get the ball to Jones off the screen. His NBA length 3 bounced off the rim, straight up into the air, and out of bounds to complete a 14-minute stretch where the Dons outscored East Carter 38-19.

But less than 3 minutes later, Golden swished a kickout 3 to tie the game.

“Credit to them for being tough,” Penn said. “It’s good for me knowing I’ve got a tough team willing to battle through stuff moving forward. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. We were in the right spot at the right time.”

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