Dylan Mills hits buzzer-beating 3 to send Kalama to district title: ‘When the bright lights were on him, he showed up’
Wes Armstrong had a play designed if Napavine’s free throw rimmed off and Kalama got the rebound, down two with 10 seconds left.
Spread the floor. Get the ball in Dylan Mills’ hands, with a potential backdoor option available. Instead, Mills took matters into his own hands. In fact, in a timeout before the free throw, with Chinooks star Jackson Esary fouled out, he said, ‘give me the ball.’
Mills quickly scanned the floor as the clock ticked down.
He took two dribbled back as the clock hit five seconds, crossed the defender to his right, pulled up and drilled a 3 with a hand in his face, lifting the top-ranked Chinooks (18-1) to a 59-58 win over Napavine to advance to Saturday’s 2B District IV title game and book its berth to the state regional round.
“Dylan just said to heck with it, I’m just going to do a step-back 3,” Armstrong said. “It’s just a senior leading his team … I could tell by his body language he wasn’t going to miss it. When the bright lights were on him, he showed up.”
The last play was one of the only things that went as scripted for Kalama on Wednesday night at Kelso High School. Napavine led most of the way, and Chinooks senior Preston Armstrong, an O-lineman for the Chinooks’ 2B state title football team in the fall, had his hands full all night guarding Utah football pledge Keith Olsen.
Olsen finished with 14 points and 17 boards and Esary had a game-high 23 before fouling out with around 50 seconds left.
Mills scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter.
“Jackson’s been doing it for us all year, it’s just nice to see (other) guys making shots for us,” Armstrong said. “You’ve got to have a little bit of luck this time of year and we got lucky.”
Napavine (16-4) is still hunting for a regional berth.
Regional berths are awarded this week and the field will be organized by state seeding committees and and announced Sunday.
Watch the shot here:
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