Wilstead beats buzzer for Pine View OT victory

Snow Canyon at Pine View, St. George, Utah, Jan. 29, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Football scouts think Kody Wilstead’s future is in their sport. Basketball scouts may be starting to disagree.

Pine-view-smsnow-canyon-smThe Pine View junior, a blue chip recruit quarterback for Pine View’s football team, who passed for the second-most yards in Utah state history this past season, is becoming a bona fide basketball star. Wednesday night he scored 27 points and hit the game-winning shot, a 14-foot jumper at the buzzer in overtime, to beat Snow Canyon 71-69.

“I haven’t really practiced that shot, at least not from that far out,” Wilstead said. “But I knew it was in when I let it go. Snow Canyon kind of messed up the play we had and time was running out, so I had to do something.”

It was a classic game for Wilstead, who finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. His block with 40 seconds left in OT set Pine View up for the game-winner.

He also had a three-point play earlier in the overtime that fouled out Snow Canyon center Nate Gottfredson.

“One word to describe Kody — winner,” Pine View coach Darrell Larsen said. “He just went out there and made the plays necessary for us to win this game. I’m just so proud of this group of guys right now. They deserve this win.”

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Kody Wilstead celebrates with his classmates after a gut-wrenching victory Wednesday night, Snow Canyon at Pine View, St. George, Utah, Jan. 29, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, St. George News
Kody Wilstead celebrates with his classmates after a gut-wrenching victory Wednesday night, Snow Canyon at Pine View, St. George, Utah, Jan. 29, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, St. George News

It didn’t look like Pine View was going to get a win heading into the fourth quarter. Led by big man Hayden Anderson and the hot shooting of reserve guard Kade Potter, the Warriors had forged a 55-47 lead heading into the final period. When Tanner Sampson converted a Pine View turnover into a 3-pointer, the lead ballooned to 58-47 and it looked like Snow Canyon was on its way to a huge road victory and a season sweep of the Panthers.

“”We’ve been in situations like that before, so we knew we needed to stay calm,” PV guard Chaz Peterson said. “We’re a little more experienced than we’ve been in the past. We have been in games like this before. So we just started working away.”

Hayden Anderson (32), guarded by Kody Wilstead, had a career-high 21 points Wednesday night, Snow Canyon at Pine View, St. George, Utah, Jan. 29, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, St. George News
Hayden Anderson (32), guarded by Kody Wilstead, had a career-high 21 points Wednesday night, Snow Canyon at Pine View, St. George, Utah, Jan. 29, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, St. George News

And work away they did, to the tune of a 13-1 run over 4:24 of game time. Sampson’s trey came at the 7:45 mark and when Collin Dowdell’s jumper settled home at the 3:21 point, Pine View had a 60-59 lead.

The two teams traded buckets over the final moments of regulation with Dowdell putting Pine View ahead 65-63 with 26 seconds to play with a post finger roll. Anderson matched it with five seconds to play. Peterson’s long trey to end regulation rattled out and overtime was on.

In the extra period, Peterson put the Panthers up one with a free throw, with Anderson making it 67-66 for the Warriors with 3:15 to play with a lefty layup.

On the other end, Wilstead posted Gottfredson up, making a slick up and under move that froze SC’s big man. The three-point play made it 69-67 with 1:36 to go and fouled Gottfredson out of the game.

Both teams missed free throws, but Snow Canyon tied the game at 69-69 on a bank shot by Anderson, who had a career-high 21 points in the game. His basket came with 40 seconds left.

“Anderson, he is Mr. Fundamental,” Wilstead said. “He reminds me of Tim Duncan. He’s just so fundamentally sound. And he was quicker than me tonight. And he made everything.”

Pine View took the clock down to 15 seconds and called time out.

“The play we called got blown up by Snow Canyon,” Peterson said. “They did a good job on it. When Kody got it out there, I thought, ‘Kody, what are you going to do?’ He made a big shot. It was a great shot. It was a great play.”

The victory puts Pine View at 7-1 in Region 9, one and a half games ahead of Snow Canyon, which is 5-2, and two games ahead of third place Cedar, which is 5-3.

Along with Wilstead’s 27, Dowdell had 15 and Jack Bangerter, in his second game back from a serious concussion, had 14 points. Peterson also had 14 points for the Panthers, who improved to 15-2 on the year.

Snow Canyon, 10-6 overall, got 15 rebounds from Anderson to go with his 21 points. Sampson had 12 points while Jacob Frei added 11 points and Gottfredson, who battled foul troubles all game, ended up with 10 points.

Anderson had a huge second quarter. With Gottfredson on the bench with two fouls, the Warriors went inside to the big guy Anderson, who had played the lead role in the schools’s production of “Shrek,” this past fall. Like an Ogre trying to clear out his swamp, Anderson raged through the post, going over and around Wilstead for 13 second-quarter points.

Pine View, one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the state, made just three treys. Snow Canyon had seven 3-pointers in the game, including three by Sampson and two each by Frei and Potter.

The Panthers are undefeated at home, but play three of their final four games on the road, including Friday’s battle at Dixie. Wilstead, who was injured with a slight concussion and a shoulder problem, may miss Friday’s game. He will be evaluated Thursday.

Snow Canyon, which has five region games left, plays at home vs. Canyon View on Friday night.

Stats: scpv12914pvscpv12914sc

See the buzzer-beater on YouTube

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.

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