The BYU-Idaho men’s basketball championship game last Friday did not disappoint. The stadium was full of students and locals itching to see some high-flying dunks and athletic gameplay.
It was a head-to-head matchup between the Spartans and Hurricanes. The Spartans came out with a fire in their eyes and quickly racked up the points and forced costly turnovers for the Hurricanes. The Spartans had several players, including shooting guard Carson Weir, who have played in a championship game before.
“I remember my first championship,” Weir said. “Shots were long, you’re a little amped, have a little bit more energy, and you know your shots are up and you’re throwing it super far off the rim or off the backboard sometimes. I think we just had a calmer demeanor. We had all been there before. We knew what to expect.”
Playing in a championship game at BYU-Idaho is much different than the regular season. Games are played on the BYU-Idaho Center courts during the season as well as during most of the playoffs. The championship game, however, is played in the Hart main gym, bringing a change of scene for the teams.
“We knew kind of the theatrics of the game, and we knew that nerves were going to be there for people that haven’t been there before,” Weir said. “And I think we were able to kind of take advantage of that in the first half especially.”
The game slowed down for the Spartans as they struggled shooting, and the Hurricanes defense picked up. They maintained a 10-point lead throughout the game up until the beginning of the fourth quarter when the Hurricanes took the lead for the first time all game with an impressive scoring run led by Hurricanes center Atticus Place.
Spartans head coach Mckayla Pincock was put in a difficult situation, having only one final timeout for the rest of the game.
“There was a time where in the fourth quarter about a minute in, the hurricanes kind of went on a hot streak and I have one timeout left with eight minutes to go,” Pincock said. “It’s like, I should really use a timeout right now, but I have one timeout for the rest of the game, and anything can happen at this point.”
The Hurricanes continued to get hot from the three-point line, but the Spartans would not go away just yet. The two teams traded baskets throughout the quarter as the Hurricanes maintained their one-point lead down to the last minute of the game.
The Hurricanes had the ball with the shot clock and game clock separated by only four seconds. Hurricanes shooting guard Grant Richardson drove to the basket in hopes to extend the lead to 3, but committed a charging foul, resulting in a Hurricanes turnover, giving the Spartans the last shot of the game.
With 10 seconds left in the game, the Spartans drove to the basket and then Hurricanes came up with what seemed to be the game-saving block, but a jump ball was called, giving the Spartans one last shot with 2.7 seconds left in the game. Down by 1 point, Spartans shooting guard Chandler Pincock was given the ball and the rest is history.
“I thought I was going to airball, I won’t lie,” Chandler Pincock said. “We had run that play before and had been something we didn’t use a lot. And I just remember coming out of the screen, Carson passed me the ball and I was like, ‘I’m wide open, this is not good. No one makes the wide-open game winner.’ But then it went in.”
The Spartans won the championship game off of a miracle game winning shot from Chandler Pincock, giving him and the team a moment to remember for the rest of their lives.