And while the current members of the Davis High basketball team may not know who Johnny Most is, the Celtic broadcaster had to be smiling from someplace when Dart Casey Nye did his best Havlicek impersonation to help seal Davis’ overtime win in the 5A state quarterfinals against Pleasant Grove Wednesday night.
Nursing a 56-54 lead with less than two minutes to play in overtime, Nye stole an inbound pass from Pleasant Grove and somewhere with in the chaos, Most’s voice could almost be heard screaming, “Nye steals it! Casey Nye stole the ball!”
“I couldn’t have made the play without my teammates,” Nye said. “They did a great job of denying the inbound pass and I could tell where the ball was going to go so I went after it.”
“What a great play in a game full of great plays by our guys,” Davis coach Jay Welk said after the game. “Every guy made plays to help us win this game. A complete team effort.”
Moments after his steal, Nye was fouled and calmly hit two free throws to extend the Davis lead to 58-54.
With 12 second to play Trevor Daniels finished off a big night as he hit two more free throws and the Darts danced off the floor at the E Center and into the state semi-finals.
Pleasant Grove came in with highly touted CJ Wilcox, who will be playing basketball at the University of Washington and two Division I football recruits. But the smaller Darts used its smarts and tenacity to jump out to an 18-10 first quarter lead. By halftime, the score was 29-23.
The third quarter remained nearly even, but in the fourth the Vikings outscored the Darts 16-9 and nearly grabbed the win but Wilcox’s desperation shot at the buzzer of regulation clanked out.
The overtime was owned by the Darts, including the play of monster man in the middle James Cowser. In the four minutes of overtime, Cowser out muscled the larger Vikings and grabbed four rebounds while hitting the go ahead basket just after the tipoff was stolen by quick hands of Kelvin Taylor.
“Like I said before, a great play and this game was a game where our guys made play after play,” Welk said.
Jordan Welk picked up the defensive assignment of chasing around Wilcox and held the standout to 17 points on six-of 17 shooting, including 1 for 4 from three the point line.
“He is one of the toughest players I’ve ever guarded,” said Jordan Welk. “He’s the second best I’ve ever had to guard.”
Welk noted the most important part of his defensive effort was due to his teammates and keeping the ball out of the hands of Wilcox.
“My teammates did a great job and I just kept trying to deny him from getting the ball,” Jordan Welk said. “It was tough.”
The Darts stat sheet showed the story of a complete team effort. Cowser finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and two steals; Taylor was good for 11 points and five assists; Daniels came up with 10 big points and three rebounds; Welk finished with eight points, three rebounds and four assists; Nye, to go along with his big steal, finished with four points and two boards and Brandt Bennett came up big with two three pointers for six points and two rebounds.
Davis plays West Jordan on Friday in the state semi-finals.
To see a clip of the aforementioned Havlicek steal copy and paste the follwowing link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qebYTGTLPPw&feature=related
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