[ t o u r n e y t o w n . c o m -- 2008 Class 1B boys state tournament ]

Liberty Christian -- Groth 1-4 0-5 2, Killinger 0-0 0-0 0, Nash 0-2 0-0 0, Stratton 5-17 1-3 11, Wilson 6-12 1-1 14, Siefken 5-12 5-5 17, Howard 1-5 0-1 2, Lane 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-52 7-15 46.

Entiat -- Perez 1-2 0-0 2, Quezada 6-16 0-0 14, Andersen 2-15 0-0 4, Nelson 2-3 0-0 4, Whitehall 0-0 0-0 0, Paz 0-0 0-0 0, Arnold 0-4 2-2 2, Edwardson 0-0 0-0 0, Crawley 7-15 1-4 15, Whitehall 3-6 1-2 7, Avelar 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-61 4-8 48.

Liberty Christian

Entiat

3-point goals--LC 3-14 (Siefken 2-6, Wilson 1-3, Groth 0-1, Howard 0-2, Nash 0-2), E 2-15 (Quezada 2-9, Arnold 0-2, Andersen 0-4). Rebounds
--LC 38 (Howard 8, Stratton 7), E 42 (Crawley 12). Assists--LC 7 (Stratton 3, Wilson 3), E 11 (Quezada 5). Steals--LC 17 (Siefken 6), E 12 (Arnold 4). Blocked shots--LC 4 (Howard 3), E 2 (Crawley 2). Fouled out--Nelson. Total fouls--LC 13, E 18. Technical fouls--None. Turnovers--LC 22, E 20.

Liberty Christian players spent the final minute of Wednesday’s tournament-opening nailbiter against Entiat parading to the free throw line, where defenders’ arms and seconds ticking off the clock were not a concern. They had all the time in the world.

And they missed. Again and again.

Entiat guard Leonardo Quezada had almost no time to get off a 3-pointer that, if it missed, meant that his Tigers would lose.

And he hit it.

“Incredible,” Quezada said after the Tigers (19-2), who had led for just 21 seconds of the second half, tied the game on Quezada’s 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds remaining and then won it 48-46 when sophomore center Dylan Crawley snaked through the lane for the winning layup with eight seconds left in overtime.

Top-ranked Liberty Christian (18-7) had every chance to put the No. 4 Tigers away and couldn’t do it. Aside from Jeremy Siefken and Mark Wilson, who combined for 31 points, the rest of the team shot a collective 25 percent from the field.

The Patriots also missed five free throws over the final 53 seconds, three of them on the front end of one-and-one situations. Any one of them would have rendered Quezada’s trey moot.

“It felt good whenever they missed the free throws,” Crawley said.

After Michael Groth missed a pair at 0:16, the Tigers worked for the last shot but almost didn’t get one off when Liberty Christian almost trapped the ball near the sideline. But Quezada got the ball at the top of the key with four seconds remaining, squared up and shot — over the outstretched hands of two defenders.

“I just set up and shot. I didn’t fade away or anything,” said Quezada, who didn’t know how much time. “I just knew less than five seconds. It looked good when I shot. It felt good.”

Crawley, who was behind Quezada at that instant, was even more confident.

“I knew it was good when it left his hand,” Crawley said.

The Tigers led most of the OT period until the Patriots’ Wilson tied it up on a 3-point play with 1:43 remaining. Liberty Christian missed an 8-footer at 1:15, after which Entiat played for the last shot.

“Dylan had some emotion and fire today that we haven’t seen for a long time,” Entiat coach Bill Edwardson said. “He was pumping his fist and wanting the ball.”

And therein lay the difference: The Tigers knew what to do with it when they had it.