MINDEN - Douglas High School's gymnasium has been a magical place for nearly two years.
Twenty games have come and gone since Douglas fell in the first round of the 2010 playoffs to upstart McQueen, and 20 times the Tigers have emerged victorious.
The magic belonged to Spanish Springs Tuesday night, specifically reserve guard Connor Naisbitt, who launched a shot just inside the half court line as time expired in overtime and watched it sail cleanly through the net to deliver a 68-67 Cougar victory.
The swing of emotion was palpable as Douglas had just moments earlier all but won the game on a Hunter Myers stickback.
It initially appeared as though time had expired directly after the shot, but Spanish Springs coach Kyle Penney managed to call a timeout, Officials put 1.5 seconds back on the clock, setting the Cougars up underneath the Douglas basket.
"Whats ironic is last night at practice we put them all on the baseline and said you get three dribbles and then have to chuck it," Penney said. "We ended practice on that and none of them were close. Then we gave them one more chance and Connor made it, just like that. So when I called that timeout we had to go to Connor."
Following the timeout, Naisbitt received the pass along the sideline even with the free-throw line, bolted down the wing and managed to get off three dribbles before launching the game-winner. It was only his second shot of the night. The first was blocked in the first half by Douglas' Hunter Myers.
Douglas coach Corey Thacker had noted Spanish Springs as a potential sleeping giant earlier in the year.
"They're a 5-6 team in league play," Thacker said of the Cougars, who currently stand in fourth place in the High Desert League. "I don't know how that happened, they are much better than their record shows."
While Naisbitt's last-second heroics delivered the win, it was the early part of the game that was most troublesome for the Tigers.
Spanish Springs had runs of 9-0 and 12-0 in the first quarter to take a 23-9 lead into the second. It cemented a disturbing trend for the Sierra-League-leading Tigers, who have now trailed after one quarter against six of the seven other current playoff teams. Four of those have been double-digit deficits and three have resulted in losses.
"We just can't put ourselves in that position," Thacker said. "We're beating a dead horse at this point. It's something we have to figure out. We have to come prepared to play with more intensity."
The Tigers bounced back after the slow start and appeared to be ready to go into the locker room for halftime on a 10-1 run trailing 31-23.
Spanish Springs' Kenny Meyer, though, came up with the Cougars' first miracle shot of the night, hitting a turnaround desperation shot while falling away at the sideline 5 feet above the arc as the buzzer sounded. The basket put Spanish Springs up 34-23.
Douglas chipped away at the lead in the third quarter, first running up a 7-0 stretch, then a 5-0 stretch and another 5-0 stretch punctuated by a Jake Tessmann 3-pointer at the buzzer to close the gap to 46-42.
Interestingly, four of the five quarters on the night ended with made buzzer-beaters.
Myers, who led all scorers with 25 points, opened the fourth with a 3-pointer to close the gap to 46-45.
After the teams traded baskets to set the score at 48-47, Tessmann knocked down another 3-pointer, one of four for him on the night, to give Douglas its first lead of the night at 50-48 with 4:54 remaining.
Spanish Springs tied it back up on a basket from Brian Smith, but Nick Maestretti put Douglas up 52-50 on a runner with 4:01 remaining.
Spanish Springs' Brandon Delong then hit a 3-pointer to retake the lead at 53-52 with 3:47 left and Tessmann answered with yet another 3-pointer putting Douglas up 55-53 with 3:23 left.
The Cougars pieced together a 7-0 run over the next 2:29 to go up 60-55 with 50 seconds remaining.
Myers drew a foul on a made lay-up and converted the shot to bring Douglas back to with two, but Spanish Springs' T.J. MacCauley hit the front end of a pair of free throws to set the score at 61-58.
DAYTON BOYS END SKID
DAYTON - Dayton High's varsity boys basketball team snapped its 0-for-January slump with a 72-57 win over Rite of Passage Tuesday afternoon.
The win snapped a nine-game losing streak heading into Friday's key pod showdown at Fallon. Dayton must beat out either Fallon or Fernley to reach the postseason.
Dylan Taylor led the way with 29 points, while Bernardo Macias added 15 and Adan Gomez 14.
CHS JV GIRLS ROLL
RENO - Gina Peacock scored 13 points to lead Carson to an easy 43-31 win over Hug Tuesday night.
Bethany Kniffen added seven, while Kayla Aikins and Natali Salas scored six each.
CARSON FROSH GIRLS WIN
Maddie Preston scored 14 points to lead Carson to an easy 41-11 win over Hug Tuesday afternoon at Morse Burley Gym.
Michelle Perry and Destanee Cachucha added six points apiece. Carson improved to 14-3.
CARSON JV BOYS LOSE
RENO - Hug rolled to an easy 68-36 win over Carson on Tuesday.
Chace Baker led Carson with 10 points, while Gehrig Tucker added eight and Adam Peterson six.
DAYTON WRESTLERS THIRD
Dayton High's wrestling team placed third in a recent dual-meet tournament.
Joey Moore was 2-0 at 220 pounds, while Edgar Diaz was 1-1 at 152. Canyon Bowers (145) and Nick Aquino (145) were 1-0.
KOC FREE-THROW CONTEST
The annual Knights of Columbus Free-Throw Championship is scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. at Carson Middle School.
The event is open to boys and girls between 10 and 14 years of age (as of Jan. 1, 2012). There is no entry fee, and interested boys and girls can sign up the day of the event.
For more information, call Gregg Swift at 775-882-7545.