Bendixen hits OT winner for North Cedar (w/video)

SOLON - You knew Jordan Hay was going to take the final shot in overtime last night. His coach knew, his teammates knew, the opposing team knew, the standing-room-only crowd at Solon High School knew.

Guess what? He crossed everyone up and passed the basketball instead.

What a great choice. Seth Bendixen swished a wide-open 3-pointer at the buzzer to give his fifth-ranked team a 58-55 win over West Branch in a Class 2A district final.

“That was crazy,” said Hay, the third-leading scorer in the state at 24.1 points per game. “Once I saw the form (on his shot), I said ‘That's going in.' How he shoots that, I knew it was going in.”

What a brilliant ending to a brilliant game between these Cedar Valley Conference rivals. West Branch (19-5), which lost twice in the regular season to NC, battled back from an eight-point halftime deficit and had a one-point lead when Jacob Sheyko hit a jumper with 35 seconds left in regulation.

A Kyle Jackson free throw with 10 ticks left sent it to OT, 52-52. Nothing separated the clubs in the extra four minutes, either, with North Cedar (22-2) running the final minute off the clock for a final shot.

Hay used a high-ball screen to try and penetrate from the top of the arc, but there was little room. So he kicked it to the left wing instead, and Bendixen's shot was oh, so true, his fifth trey of the game.

North Cedar, which has won 16 in a row, plays Iowa City Regina (16-8) in a substate final Saturday night at Washington, with the winner making it to the state tournament. The teams, also Cedar Valley Conference rivals, split two games in the regular season.

"We set that ball screen,” Bendixen said. “(Hay's) job was to work off of it. If he was open, he'd take the shot. If not, he'd kick it out to Kyle or me. He got doubled and kicked it out, and I was able to knock it down. It felt pretty good the minute it left my hand."

“At the timeout, we planned on them coming out man to man,” said NC Coach Scott Jackson. “But they came out in a 2-3 (zone) trap, trapped us high. We were yelling ‘Purple, purple, purple' for a high-ball screen.”

The 6-foot-6 Hay, whose really more of a guard, led the Knights with 24 points to Bendixen's 17. Clay Cook's 20 points led WB, with Logan Murry and Brandon Young adding 11 each.

“Great game,” said West Branch Coach Stephen Bender. “They just made one more play than we did.”

Here's the game boxscore and video of Bendixen's winner and a short interview with him:

AT SOLON

NORTH CEDAR (58): Josh Sander 3-6 0-0 6, Mitch Schroeder 1-5 0-0 2, Kyle Jackson 0-3 1-3 1, Jordan Hay 7-22 1-3 24, Jordan Kintzel 2-11 4-6 8, Seth Bendixen 6-16 0-0 17, Alex Leeper 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-63 15-20 58.

WEST BRANCH (55): Rylan Murry 2-10 4-5 8, Logan Murry 4-10 2-4 11, Tyler Trimble 1-7 0-0 2, Brandon Young 4-8 0-0 11, Clay Cook 7-11 6-8 20, Grant Mastain 0-2 0-0 0, Jacob Sheyko 1-5 1-2 3, Ryan Kirkey 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-54 13-19 55.

Halftime - North Cedar 26, West Branch 18. End of Regulation - North Cedar 52, West Branch 52. 3-point goals - North Cedar 5-17 (Sander 0-1, Jackson 0-3, Hay 0-1, Kintzel 0-1, Bendixen 5-11), West Branch 4-14 (R. Murry 0-3, L. Murry 1-2, Trimble 0-3, Young 3-6). Rebounds - North Cedar 46 (Hay 12, Kintzel 11), West Branch 39 (L. Murray 12, Cook 9). Total fouls - North Cedar 19, West Branch 19. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - North Cedar 6, West Branch 11.