Washpun's winner at buzzer lifts Wash past West (w/video)

CEDAR RAPIDS - Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Wes Washpun and the Cedar Rapids Washington boys' basketball team were a little of both last night.Washpun hit a running, buzzer-beating floater off the backboard from between 25 to 30 feet to give Wash a stunning 54-52 win over Iowa City West at the Warrior gym.“I knew I just had to get the shot off,” Washpun said. “I just took my one dribble ... I got it up in time, and it looked pretty good. I wasn't sure if it was going to go in or not. Luckily, it did.”

A Dondre Alexander inside hoop with 38 seconds left gave West a 52-51 lead. Washpun drove the lane but lost the basketball out of bounds with 4.8 to go, and it looked like Class 4A ninth-ranked Wash (5-2) was cooked.West's Jeremy Morgan was fouled immediately on the inbounds play but missed the one-and-one, with Wash rebounding and calling timeout with 1.9 left. An unguarded Alex Carr threw a bullet pass from the baseline to a cutting Washpun to the left of the hoop at half court. He dribbled once, leapt between the half-court line and 3-point line, double-clutched and let it go.“Just had to get it to him,” said Carr. “He makes those in practice.”“It was kind of a frustrating night, but we came through it as a team,” Washpun said. “We at least gave ourselves a chance to win it.”A young but talented West squad - with two sophs and a freshman in the starting lineup - did everything but win. The Trojans were more aggressive, leading to an eight-rebound edge and 12 more trips to the free-throw line.But they missed nine of their 16 free throws, which helped Wash hang in on a night in which it was outplayed a lot of the way.“Our defense wasn't horrible on that last play,” said West Coach Steve Bergman, whose team had a foul to give. “It's tough to tell a kid to foul, then he turns around and shoots a 3, and we give up three free throws. I don't know. It was a hard way to lose, let's put it that way.”Alexander had 23 points for West. Josh Oglesby had 22 for Wash and Washpun 18."We've got a lot of plays for a lot of situations," said Washington Coach Brad Metzger. "But it's still a crapshoot in a situation like that. We made some cuts there. The guy who threw the ball inbounds (Carr) did a great job on that play."We definitely didn't play our best tonight. We'll see where we go. Practice will tell us a lot."Here's is the game boxscore and video of Washpun's game winner above:

AT C.R. WASHINGTON

IOWA CITY WEST (52): Jeremy Morgan 1-6 0-1 3, Wyatt Lohaus 2-7 0-0 4, Jacob Gylten 3-7 3-4 10, Okechukwu Ukah 2-4 1-4 5, Dondre Alexander 9-13 3-7 23, Austin Swank 0-3 0-0 0, Leo Franz 1-2 0-0 3, Corey Staten 1-3 0-0 2, John Seyfer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-45 7-16 52.

C.R. WASHINGTON (54): Sean Bredl 2-6 0-0 4, Josh Oglesby 8-16 1-2 22, Cybryan Moa 1-1 0-0 3, Wes Washpun 8-18 1-2 18, Alex Carr 2-3 0-0 5, McCauley Todd 0-2 0-0 0, David Tann 0-0 0-0 0, Trent Hoekstra 0-0 0-0 0, Heath Clark 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 22-47 2-4 54.

Halftime - West 25, Washington 24.

3-point goals - West 5-11 (Morgan 1-4, Lohaus 0-1, Gylten 1-2, Alexander 2-2, Franz 1-2), Washington 8-13 (Oglesby 5-9, Moa 1-1, Washpun 1-2, Carr 1-1).

Rebounds - West 29 (Alexander 9), Washington 21 (Washpun 8).

Total fouls - West 6, Washington 13.

Fouled out - None.

Turnovers - West 13, Washington 9.[gallery columns="2"]