Thanks to a wild four-overtime basketball game between two Minnesota high schools, March Madness arrived a bit early. With a trip to the state championship tournament on the line, Waseca High School sealed a Section 2AAA Final victory with a three-pointer at the buzzer.
But that was just the last of three dramatic buzzer beating three-pointers. Nearing the end of regulation, Waseca was up 72-69 in St. Peter, Minn. when Marshall's Trey Lance made a game tying three-pointer that bounced around the rim enough times to give a person heart palpitations.
After finishing two overtime periods still deadlocked, Marshall pulled ahead by three points after Reece Winkelman hit a jump shot, was fouled and sank his free throw. With 1.7 seconds left in the third overtime, Waseca inbounded to Nick Dufault, who hit a three-pointer some 70 feet from the basket to tie the game.
The fourth overtime seemed as if it would end with the game still tied. The score 100-100, Wascea inbounded with seven seconds to go and Marshall swarmed the ball-handler, who managed to get a cross-court pass off to his teammate, Cole Streich, remarkably on target and nearly in stride. Streich took the ball across mid-court, pulled up for a three-pointer and ended the game 103-100.
Local media called the game "the greatest game ever played" and "The Three Miracles Of St Peter." Waseca will play quarterfinals of the Class AAA state tournament on Wednesday at the Target Center in Minneapolis. The last time Waseca reached the state tournament was in 2002 and, ironically enough, they did so then with a win over Marshall.
"Talk about a team victory," Waseca head coach Todd Dufault said. "That's why we're going to state. The supporting cast. You can go right down the line of the guys that played tonight and they all came up with a big steal, a big rebound, a big shot. That's why we were in a position to win."
After the game, the Waseca players were in a completely justified state of disbelief. Some had a hard time putting together a complete statement while others just stated the obvious.
"It was so surreal," Dufault said of his full-court heave. "I don't know how else to put it, I'm so thankful."
"It's a definite blessing," Streich said.
"We just had the confidence that this was our night," Malik Willingham said. "There was no way we were losing after that."
