Boys basketball: Levi Sheehan’s last-second free throws lift Ottawa past Sycamore

OTTAWA – There was never a doubt in Levi Sheehan’s mind.

Not when he and his Ottawa teammates allowed Sycamore to score the game’s first 10 points.

Not when the Pirates caught up but again fell behind by 11 points early in the fourth quarter.

And certainly not when he stepped to the foul line with his team down a single point and less than a second left on the clock.

Sheehan, who missed a 3-pointer and was fouled scrambling for the rebound of Cooper Knoll’s putback attempt, was cool at the stripe, getting nothing but net on both free throws to give the Pirates a thrilling 46-45 win over the Spartans in an Interstate 8 Conference game Friday at Kingman Gym.

“I guess I was in the right spot at the right time,” Sheehan said of the rebound and foul. “We always start out bad, and we did tonight. We’re more a second-half team, but even in the fourth quarter, still no doubt we’d be back.

“And no doubt on the free throws. I was all tired and all sweaty, but them calling a timeout helped me catch my breath a little bit. Never a doubt I’d make them.”

The last two of Sheehan’s game-best 12 points, along with eight rebounds and four assists, coupled with 11 points from Huston Hart, 10 points from Cooper Knoll and some fourth-quarter heroics from Aiden Mucci earned Ottawa its 11th win in 20 games. The Pirates are 7-3 in the conference.

Sophomore Carter York also netted 12 points to pace the Spartans (8-14, 3-7 I-8).

“Levi’s a veteran senior who’s played a lot of basketball over the years, and we felt good with him at the line,” said Ottawa coach Mark Cooper, whose team edged the Spartans 42-41 Dec. 16 at Sycamore. “It was a very stressful situation, but it seemed he was very comfortable being there with 0.7 to go.

“We were down 10-0 right out of the gate just like we’ve done a few times this season, then we climbed and climbed and climbed and made enough of a surge in the last three minutes to get it done. … I was glad that we played downhill that last possession, put pressure on them, got a couple of offensive rebounds.

“It was a good bounce back night for us and Levi was able to finish the game off for us.”

A pair of York buckets helped Sycamore get out to that early lead, but thanks to a couple of 3s by Hart and a Sheehan scoop layup, it was tied at 12-12 after one.

Five points by Lucas Winburn spurred the visitors to a 25-15 edge in the second quarter, but eight points by Cooper Knoll erased that, the last two giving Ottawa a 30-28 advantage at 4:49 of the third.

One last time, Sycamore surged, four points from York and a Diego Garcia deuce at 7:38 of the fourth, making it 41-33 Spartans.

That’s when Mucci shined, clamping down on York and popping in six straight Pirate points, the last off a pass from Payton Knoll, that drew the hosts to within 45-44 with 2:05 left.

A missed front end of a 1-and-1 with 20.1 seconds left gave Ottawa its last chance. Eventually, Sheehan missed a 3 from the key and Cooper Knoll rebounded and missed.

Sheehan came out of the scrum with the ball and was fouled flipping up a desperation shot.

After a Spartans timeout, the OHS senior calmly drilled the winners.

“We’re a very young team, starting three sophomores, but we’ve experienced enough of these close games for me to lose my mind over it,” Sycamore coach Ethan Franklin said. “We know experience and the talent we have will translate into a lot of wins moving forward, but it’s tough to lose like that. This is the second time losing to them by one point.

“I felt like we played pretty well on both ends of the floor and worked really hard. … We had a couple of opportunities to finish this one out and it’s just unfortunate it didn’t go our way tonight.”