DAYTON -- West Side's path to the 3A state tournament in boys basketball just got much, much more rocky.
Third-seeded Wendell outscored second-seeded West Side 6-0 during the final 80 seconds of the fourth quarter and earned a hard-fought 60-57 victory in the semifinals of the 3A Fifth District Tournament on Tuesday evening.
To make matters worse for the Pirates, top-seeded Declo suffered its first loss of the season to fourth-seeded Soda Springs, 48-44. That means the Pirates will have to go through Malad and surely Declo just to make it to the 3A state play-in game.
Declo (20-1) is first in the maxpreps 3A state rankings, while West Side (15-6) is second. Because both teams lost Tuesday, one of them will definitely not be going to state. Meanwhile, Wendell (16-6) will host Soda Springs (14-9) next Tuesday in the district tourney title tilt and both teams will be headed to state.
"Yeah, that's how it is," WS head coach Tyler Brown answered when asked about tough his district is. "You know, we had (Wendell) at home, we had our chances. We didn't have people make shots when they needed to and step up when they needed to, and (Wendell) did, so give them credit. They won the game and they did what they needed to."
It was a very competitive game between two good teams Tuesday as neither led by more than seven points and it was a one-possession game virtually the entire fourth quarter. There were four ties and one lead change during the final eight minutes of action.
The Pirates took their last lead at 57-54 on a straightaway 3-pointer by Raef Graves with 1:37 remaining. However, the Trojans had an immediate answer in the form of Jonathan Swainston's seventh 3-ball of the contest.
Simply put, Swainston was unstoppable at times as he poured in 30 points. The junior guard, who averages 17.7 points an outing, accounted for 20 of Wendell's 23 points in the opening half.
"Way tough," Brown answered when asked how tough Swainston is to guard when he gains some early confidence. "I don't know how many points No. 3 had. ... He came to play. He put his team on his shoulders and won the game, so give him credit."
Ironically enough, it was Swainston's twin brother, Jordon, who provided the heroics as he picked the pocket of a West Side player with less than 30 seconds remaining in the contest and drove in for an uncontested layup and a 59-57 Wendell advantage. The Pirates then promptly turned the ball over again and Jordon Swainston split a pair of free throws.
The Pirates had an opportunity to force overtime, but never got a shot off, inasmuch as they committed their third turnover in the final 30 seconds. Jordon Swainston, who averages nearly 15 points per game, was scoreless in the first half, but came through with 12 points during the final 16 minutes of action.
Simply put, those turnovers loomed large for the Pirates, as did five missed free throws during the first quarter and seven missed uncontested layups throughout the game. West Side looked sharp at times offensively, but ultimately left too many points on the board.
"That was everything," Brown said of the aforementioned missed opportunities. "You can't let a good team stay around to see what they can do,and they took advantage of the big moments. They got a big steal at the end. We were trying to hold (the ball) for one shot and they stole it and got a layup, and we turned it over again and had a lot of turnovers, I think. I don't know how many turnovers we had, (but) we had a lot. Missed free throws, missed layups, it comes back to get you."
The Pirates trailed the entire first quarter, but limited the Trojans to five second-quarter points and took a 27-23 advantage into the half as Makay Peterson drained a trey at the buzzer, courtesy of a heads-up pass by Ivan Campbell. West Side led by seven points early in the third quarter, but Wendell bounced back with a 11-4 run and it was a dogfight the rest of the way.
Jarett Borges, like Jordon Swainston, came alive in the second half for the Trojans as he netted all 13 of his points. Crew Sage paced the Pirates with 15 points, followed by Campbell with 14, Jaden Fuller with 10 and Peterson with nine. Fuller knocked down a pair of shots from downtown within the first two minutes of the third quarter to seemingly give the hosts some momentum, but the visitors ultimately always had an answer.
Up next for West Side is a Thursday elimination game at home against fifth-seeded Malad. The Pirates beat the Dragons by double digits both times during the regular season.
"This one stings," Brown said. "We need to come back to practice tomorrow and get ready for Malad on Thursday and hopefully we get that one and then we have to play Declo. You know, we'll just take it one game at a time and hopefully we play a little bit better than we did tonight, as far as taking care of the ball and making shots when we need to and so forth. It just seemed like we didn't do that tonight."
Meanwhile, Preston, the regular season champions of the 5A Fifth District and top-ranked team in 5A, will host defending state champion Pocatello on Thursday. The Indians (20-1) beat the Thunder (14-8) by 12 and 13 points during their two regular season showdowns. Poky, the No. 2 seed, edged third-seeded Century (12-10) by a 54-52 Tuesday scoreline.