"That was a classic," said Head Coach Steve Smith. "You get into a game like that and it's all about the will to win it."
Going into the fourth quarter it was looking like it was going to take more than will to pull off the upset victory. Kenai had built a 36-29 lead.
The Kards then began the fourth quarter where they had left off in the third.
Kenai's Geoffery Gemmel hit a jumper to open the fourth, and Nick Barnes hit one of two free throws to give Kenai its largest lead of the game at 39-29. Homer's Steven Golson struck back quickly with a put-back of his own miss, but Barnes followed that with a reverse layup to restore Kenai's 10-point cushion with just 4:30 remaining in regulation.
Outsized at nearly every position, the Mariners' chances looked to be dwindling fast.
But that's when things started to go wrong for the Kardinals. Homer's Luke Gilbert hit a long jumper that was followed by a Jeremy Kuipers steal. On the ensuing posession, Golson dropped a three pointer, and Kenai's lead was cut in half.
Instead of attempting to protect its rapidly dwindling lead, Kenai tried to attack the basket with disastrous results. The Kards turned the ball over on consecutive possessions after Barnes and Cole Chappell couldn't hook up on identical back door plays. After the second turnover, Chappell salvaged Kenai's hopes with a blocked shot, but those hopes were quickly dashed when Homer's Casey Siekaniec stole the ball and drove in for a layup to cut the lead to three.
Then Kuipers picked off Gemmell's errant pass and got the ball to Siekaniec, who drained another jumper to cut the lead to one. It was Kuipers' third steal of the quarter, and Kenai's sixth turnover. With the Kardinals clearly shaken, head coach Rich Bartolowits called time out with just under a minute to play.
On Kenai's next possession, Chappell hit one of two free throws to inch the lead back to two. After Golson misfired twice with less than 30 seconds left, Barnes grabbed the rebound and got it to Jordan Jenckes, who had a chance to ice the game with 18.6 seconds left. But Jenckes could only manage to hit one of two himself, leaving Homer a chance to tie.
They did just that when Gilbert nailed a three from the top of the circle that sent the large group of Homer fans who traveled north for the game into a frenzy.
Gilbert finished with a team-high 25 points, but none were as timely as that three.
Gilbert said the importance of the shot took awhile to sink in.
"(At the time of the shot) I wasn't really thinking about anything," Gilbert said.
"Then afterwards I was like, 'Wow, that went in.'"
Kenai had one final shot at the end of the quarter. But Chappell's desperation three at the buzzer fell short, sending the game into its first extra session.
The first overtime ended with a gutsy performance from Kenai's Jenckes at the line.
With Homer clinging to a 50-48 lead with just 3.4 second left, Kenai's Josh Bennett got the ball down low and went up for a layup attempt. Bennett was fouled with two seconds on the clock, but missed his first attempt from the line. With no other choices available, Bennett intentionally clanged his second shot off the front of the rim, hoping to get a quick rebound.
Jenckes delivered, going up strong over Golson and pulling down the board. Golson tried to block Jenckes' follow-up attempt, but committed a foul as the buzzer sounded.
That left Jenckes all alone at the free throw line having to make both shots to extend the game. With all eyes in the gym squarely upon him, the 6'3" junior did just that as he dropped both shots to again tie the game.
Although Jenckes' free throws were clutch, Kenai as a team was weak from the line, missing 19 of their 39 attempts on the game. That flaw came back to haunt the team in the second overtime when Kuipers tripped Chappell on his drive to the basket with just .5 seconds on the clock.
With a chance to finish off the Mariners, Kenai's senior point guard couldn't finish the job, clanging both attempts off the rim to give Homer new life. The play seemed to lift the Mariners' spirits, while the Kards appeared somewhat dazed by the experience.
Kenai didn't fold however, as Barnes scored four of his team-high 20 in the third overtime to keep things close. Barnes also provided a big defenisive stop with the game tied at 61-61 and the Mariners with the ball with 12 seconds left. The junior guard put the clamps on Gilbert, who was unable to get a clean look at the basket before the buzzer sounded.
The fourth overtime belonged to Kuipers, who showed the grit that has earned the respect of his players and his coach.
"He's the toughest kid I've ever been around," Coach Smith said. "Every day he amazes me."
Kuipers began the final overtime by drawing a charge on Barnes' out-of-control drive to set up the first of what would be eight clutch free throws down the stretch that gave the Mariners the hard-earned 72-67 victory.
For the game, Kuipers finished with 13 points and was a perfect 9-for-9 from the line.
After the game, Coach Smith said the victory showed the determination of his crew.
"They wanted to avenge the loss to Kenai in the conference championship," Smith said. "It was a pride issue for them."
The coach and players realized they had contributed to a special game.
"I've been involved in basketball for 37 years," Smith said. "I've never been in a four-overtime game."
"Everyone was on their feet, watching the end of the game," Luke Gilbert said. "It was pretty intense."
Ben Stuart can be reached at bstuart@homernews.com.
Peninsula Clarion reporter Matt Tunseth contributed to this report.
We encourage you to add your comments. To prevent spam, comments with links are manually approved during the normal business day. Please be respectful of others with your comments, bear in mind anyone in the community may be reading your comments.
