In one minute, Ryker Van Belle transformed from a quaking freshman into one of the most unlikely heroes in state-tournament basketball history.

When Sunnyside Christian needed someone to save the day in a game they had seen all but ripped from their grasp by a gritty bunch of Tekoa-Oakesdale Nighthawks, they got one.

Sunnyside Christian's Jason Friend celebrates as dejected Tekoa-Oakesdale players walk off the court.   GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic

But it wasn’t Joel Koopmans, the unanimous tournament MVP, the almost certain-to-be 1B player of the year, who finished his career just four points shy of the 1,000-point mark.

It was Ryker Van Belle, a 5-foot-8 freshman whose braces show when he grins and who had played all of three minutes, and scored exactly two points, over the first tournament’s three days.

And when small-school basketball fans decades from now recall the 2008 Class 1B state championship game, it will be Van Belle’s 21-footer for the winning points in the Knights’ 38-37 victory — and their second straight title — that people will remember.

When he went into the game with the Knights tailing 37-33 with 1:42 remaining, he was going in only because steady senior Jesse Brouwer had fouled out.

“I was a little nervous,” Van Belle said. “I had the shakes when I was going out on the court.”

Why was he even on the court? Because, when the Knights practice, every once in a while coach Dean Wagenaar sends Van Belle in with the first-teamers in game-type situations and the kid hits a big shot.

“He’s got no conscious when he shoots those 3’s,” Wagenaar said. “Joel can penetrate, but he may get stuck and he’s got to have somebody he can pop the ball out to if he gets stuck.”

Sunnyside Christian's Danny Van Boven is stopped on his drive to the basket by Tekoa-Oakesdale's Kelly Cook, rear, and Brandon Hovde in the fourth quarter Saturday in the SunDome.   GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic

Koopmans scored the last of his 20 points on a 15-footer at 1:16 to pull the Knights to within a basket and had a chance to tie when he was fouled with 35 seconds remaining. But Koopmans, normally a 70-percent-or-better foul shooter, missed them both.

Exhausted or just nervous?

“I was both,” Koopmans admitted.

But 6-foot-6 Knight center Jason Friend was able to rebound the second miss —“That was HUGE,” Koopmans said — and passed the ball out to Koopmans. The 6-1 senior star tried to maneuver into position for a basket, but he had nowhere to go.

“I had two guys on me,” he said. “I saw Ryker and passed it out to him.”

Van Belle didn’t even hesitate.“I knew I had to shoot it,” he said. “Shoot it before something bad happened.”

Bad, as in putting him at the foul line, where bad things had been happening to both teams. The Knights (20-5) , who had led 28-18 with five minutes remaining, missed 13 of 18 free over the last quarter and the overtime period. The Nighthawks (19-10), after taking a 37-32 lead barely 1 1/2 minutes into overtime, squandered it by missing the front end of two one-and-one foul situations.

So Van Belle shot.

Nothing but net.

Not that Van Belle necessarily knew it.

“He said he closed his eyes,” laughed Koopmans. “I know he didn’t. But he wasn’t even thinking. He just shot. It was a prayer — and that’s what we needed.”

Van Belle’s shot held up as the game-winner when Nighthawk junior Kelly Cook, who led his team with 15 points, got off an off-balance, fallaway 3-pointer just before the final buzzer. It came close to banking in — perhaps four inches too long and two inches too wide, though, so it came off the backboard, hit the right rim and then clanged off.

Wagenaar didn’t even seem surprised by Van Belle’s stunning shot.

“Hey, the kid is a bull rider. He rides bulls. That’s his other sport,” the coach said. “He’s a tough-nosed kid.”

So, too, were the Nighthawks, a team few observers not wearing Tekoa-Oakesdale blue even gave a prayer of staying within shouting distance of the deliberate Knights. And the game seemed to be playing right into Sunnyside Christian’s hands after the Knights ran off a 14-0 run over the first and second quarters and spent most of the game with a double-digit lead.

But the Nighthawks, behind the heady play of all-tournament senior Josiah Tampien (11 points) and the timely sharpshooting of junior Kelly Cook (15 points), crawled back into it. Cook heated up in the fourth quarter, scoring seven points over the final 4:47, and when Casey Cook popped in a 14-footer with 11 seconds remaining, the game was knotted up at 32-32. When both teams wasted opportunities over those final 11 ticks, they went to overtime.

And Tekoa-Oakesdale promptly jumped into a five-point lead on back-to-back baskets, one a 3-pointer, by the two Cooks.

“Down the stretch we had a chance,” Tekoa-Oakesdale coach Russ Tampien said, “but we had to get some free throws and we had to get some rebounds when they missed free throws.”

That didn’t happen. The Nighthawks missed the two free throws, and therein lay the difference — the Knights rebounded their own misses and those of the Nighthawks.

The last of those, of course, was when Friend rebounded Koopmans’ final miss. The ball went to Koopmans and then, finally, to a freshman named Ryker Van Belle.

Who then stepped right into the history books.