Banking it in for perfection

Cutter O'Connell doesn't usually celebrate banking in a 3-pointer - but he did Saturday, and he had a lot of help with that celebration.

O'Connell's banked-in trey as time expired lifted Sidney to a 58-56 win over visiting Lexington at Cabela's Athletic Facility early Saturday evening. The last-second win keeps the Raiders unbeaten at 15-0.

"I've banked a three in before. Usually I don't get excited for those, but this one is a different occasion, I guess," O'Connell said. "I got pretty excited. I definitely don't practice banking, so I got pretty lucky. It's a fun moment for all of us, I think, and I'm pretty excited."

Sidney trailed 56-55 with 3.5 seconds left as Lexington's Trevor McKeone missed a foul shot and Tyler Wintholz grabbed the rebound. The Raiders quickly called a time out.

O'Connell took the in bounds pass after the time out, and swiftly moved right around a Lexington defender. He quickly drove along the sideline and up the court with a Lexington defender in tow, as he neared the 3-point line. There, O'Connell slipped just a bit and launched the now-infamous shot as he did.

"I was kind of nervous," he said. "I was like, 'I don't think that's going in.'"

The long shot went high into the air in a rainbow-like arc, seemingly slowing down time as it slowly drifted down. As the shot returned to earth, the buzzer sounded, and the ball squarely hit the backboard as it bounced right into the hoop for the game-winning score. When the shot fell in, the entire Sidney contingent celebrated with O'Connell as a number of players, students and fans slowly spilled out onto the floor in a bout of euphoria.

"When it went in, man, I went crazy and my teammates went crazy, and they're just a great group of guys that I play with," O'Connell said. "It's just fun for the community and this game was just hard fought."

O'Connell led the Raiders with 20 points, including the last six of the game for the home team, while Wintholz scored 13 and Mitch Porter added 11. McKeone led the Minutemen (3-10) with 20 points.

The game was intense from the start and neither team was able to build more than a 6-point advantage during any point in the game. The Raiders got on the scoreboard first with a Wintholz layup as the team battled back and forth early on. Porter's trey, with an assist from Brady Radcliffe, put the Raiders up 13-9 with 2:04 left in the first quarter and they held a 15-13 lead after the first frame.

O'Connell opened the second quarter with a trey for an 18-13 Sidney lead, but Lexington quickly erased that advantage and knotted the game at 18-all. The visiting team slowly built a lead, going up 30-25 over the Raiders at halftime.

Lexington's halftime advantage was short-lived as Sidney bolted in front early in the third quarter. Baskets by O'Connell, Zack Means and Wintholz in the first 1:40 of the second half put the Raiders up 31-30.

"We've been through a lot of adversity, not only in basketball, but in our personal lives, and I think that helps," O'Connell said. "And our camaraderie is so good that we've always got each others' backs. Down five at half, we were still in a good mindset when we came out. I think we buckled down on defense."

The Minutemen came back to knot the game at 33-all, before back-to-back Porter treys gave the Raiders a 39-33 lead at the 2:31 mark of the third quarter. However, just as they came back before, the Minutemen did once again and tied the game at 41-41 going into the final frame.

The final eight minutes featured 10 lead changes and three ties. Neither team held more than a two-point lead for the rest of the game.

In the final minute, Sidney trailed 53-52 when O'Connell hit a jumper in the lane for a 54-53 advantage. Nine seconds later, with 15 seconds left on the clock, Lexington's Jake Leger drained a trey to give the road team a 56-54 lead.

The Raiders called a time out and drove down the court before O'Connell was fouled with 4.9 seconds left. The senior hit one-of-two free throws to cut the deficit to 56-55.

The Minutemen got the ball back and McKeone was fouled with 4 seconds left. He missed the front end of the one-and-one, Wintholz grabbed the rebound, the Raiders called a time out - and the rest is history, thanks to an arching, banked-in 3-pointer - with a tip of the cap to the basketball gods.

"That last play, Tyler (Wintholz) got me in a good spot and I had to shoot it," O'Connell said. "I just threw it up there and it went in. That's the basketball gods."