Ellison scores 30, hits buzzer-beater as Black Hills beats Shelton on the road, 58-56

Both Black Hills and Shelton went to what had worked all night in the final seconds of their 2A Evergreen Conference boys basketball game Friday night at the Minidome and got results.

But the Wolves had the ball last and won, 58-56, on a desperate buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Luke Ellison, who led the game in scoring with 30 points.

In a game that featured 22 lead changes and neither team getting up by more than seven points, Black Hills took a 55-54 lead on the second-to-last of Ellison’s six 3-pointers with 31 seconds to play.

Shelton, which had missed out on several chances to build some fourth quarter separation, took a time out. Highclimbers point guard Bo Blacketer brought the ball up and hit 6-foot-8 post Tyler Ireland cutting to the rim for a 56-55 lead.

Black Hills took time with 16 seconds to go but didn’t score on its set play and looked about to lose as a loose ball bounced toward the Black Hills bench. Ellison grabbed it, turned and, without ever getting sight of the rim, lofted a shot with little more than a second to play.

Swish.

“It wasn’t exactly what we drew up, but I got the ball with one second left. I had to get it up there,” said Ellison as team mates and fans waited to renew congratulations that had started as soon as the ball went in. Though he didn’t catch sight of the rim, Ellison said he knew where he was on the court.

The victory broke a tie for third place in the loss column of the 2A EvCo standings, though both teams still have multiple games remaining in league play,

Ellison’s scoring performance was all the more remarkable considering he was coming off a 29-point game in a loss at W.F. West the night before.

“I trusted my teammates, trusted my coaches who were drawing stuff up for me,” he said. “It was a big game, we had to get the win. We really needed it heading into the playoffs.”

Black Hills coach Jeff Gallagher appreciated the way his team recovered on the second night of back-to-back road games.

“We’re just fortunate to be playing right now, so we’ll go anywhere and play anybody,” he said. “But I don’t know a team that has a tougher last four games. We’re at Chehalis (W.F. West), at Shelton, at Tumwater and then we get Chehalis again. I was really proud of our kids for battling back.”

Though Ireland controlled the inside at times on his way to a Shelton-leading 21 points, Black Hills post Keagan Rongen made things uncomfortable. Not only did Rongen score 12 points for the Wolves, he gave second and third effort throughout to grab rebounds.

Both he and Ireland went to the bench with four fouls early in the fourth quarter. But, when the Climbers’ Weetly Cordova tied the game at 50-50 with a free throw 5:11 from the end, both coaches sent their bigs back into the fray and, to their credit, neither fouled out.

“Keagan has been, in my opinion, one of the best surprises in our conference this year,” Gallagher said. “He’s stayed healthy and he battles and battles and battles. He’s had 20 rebound games, puts up a lot of double doubles. He’s just flat out tough.”

Shelton’s Charles Thompson joined Ireland in double figures with 14 points.

The first quarter set the tone for how the game would unfold. It ended tied at 15-15. Only three baskets scored in the opening period didn’t either tie the game or give the shooter’s team the lead.

Twice, Black Hills went up by seven, the second time, 34-27, on a pair of free throws by Rongen 1:14 before halftime. But, after intermission, Shelton went on a 12-6 run that ended with the Climbers taking a 43-41 lead when Ireland hit a cutting Blacketer out of the high post.

Shelton (7-6) travels to Centralia for a 7 p.m. game on Monday while Black Hills (10-7) goes to Tumwater on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

This story was originally published January 28, 2022 at 11:47 PM.