CRESTVIEW — In a scene straight out of the movie “Hoosier,” Grant Stewart hit a 3-point basket at the final buzzer to give Class 1A Paxton a 43-41 win over 7A Crestview High on Thursday.
Stewart’s buzzer beater capped a wild fourth-quarter comeback to give the Bobcats (1-0) the improbable win in their season opener.
“I hate that it got rowdy there at the end, but that was two high school basketball teams competing their hearts out,” Paxton Coach Jeff Bradley said. “They’ve got a nice club. We’ve got a good club.
“It was just a war. It was absolutely a physical war.”
Crestview-Paxton boys basketball photos>>>
The Bulldogs jumped to an early lead behind the play of Dakota Childree. Childree, who led Crestview (0-1) in scoring with 11 points, scored seven in the first quarter as the Bulldogs led 11-8 at the end of the period.
The Bulldogs were still up by three with the score 21-18 at the half. Childree added four points in the second quarter, but unfortunately for the Bulldogs as he was cooling down Paxton’s Zach Varnum was just getting going.
Varnum had 10 of his game-high 25 points at the intermission. He took over the game in the second half scoring 15 points in the final two quarters.
Even with Varnum heating up in the second half the Bulldogs were able to not only maintain the lead, but increase it in the third quarter.
Wesley St. Vil scored four points in the third quarter and six different Bulldogs scored as Crestview pushed the lead to 33-29 late in the third.
A 3-point basket by Marcelle Moorer with 31 seconds left in the third quarter put Crestview up 36-29.
Another 3-pointer by Moorer with 6:18 left in the fourth quarter gave the Bulldogs their biggest lead of the night at 39-29.
The lead didn’t last as the Crestview offense went into hibernation allowing Varnum and Paxton to chip away at the lead.
The Bobcats, who were 12-of-19 from the free throw line in the game, did most of the damage at the line in the fourth quarter. Paxton was 7-of-8 from the stripe in the final six minutes of the game. On the night the Bulldogs shot just five free throws.
A pair of Varnum free throws with 21 seconds left in the game put Paxton up 40-39.
Crestview’s Rusty Moorer hit a basket and was fouled with six seconds left in the game to put the Bulldog up 41-40. Even if Moorer had made his free throw it wouldn’t have mattered as Stewart drained the game winning 3-pointer.
“We looked tentative,” Crestview Coach Greg Watson said. “We weren’t attacking. We didn’t get many shots at the basket (inside the paint.
“We forced our shots that weren’t there. We missed two big free throws late and we had five turnovers in the fourth quarter when it matters a lot. You let a team hang around, hang around and hang around bad things happen and tonight it did.”
Email News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Bobcats upset Bulldogs on Stewart's buzzer beater (PHOTOS, VIDEO)