Feb 05, 2012
Oilers take out North Shore at the buzzer
February 24, 2010
PEARLAND — It was deja vu' all over again as Yogi Berra would say.
Last year in the first round of the Class 5A Region III bi-district contest - Pearland lost a heartbreaker at the buzzer to the North Shore Mustangs.
This year - the game was back-and-forth with neither team being able to build a large lead and maintain it.
The largest lead for North Shore was in the first quarter when the Mustangs took advantage of a strong inside game while hitting some key 3-pointers for a 15-8 advantage.
But the Oilers caught fire behind the outside shooting of Shai Fields (5 points) and a strong inside game by Harley Nussman (4 points) and Esiri Omerhi (4 points).
Pearland went on a 9-0 run to take the lead at 17-15 before getting their largest lead of the game 24-20.
With the game tied at 27-27, North Shore's Taylor Brimmer shot a wild shot at the buzzer that banked in to the disbelief of both teams giving the Mustangs a 30-27 halftime lead.
North Shore hit the first basket of the second half to increase their lead 32-27 and then Kevin Williams hit a floating jump shot while Patrick Elledge added two short layups to give Pearland a 33-32 lead.
That's when the game got interesting as neither team was able to move ahead by more than one or two points.
North Shore took a 43-41 lead entering the final frame.
After the Mustangs connected on a basket to make the score 45-41, Eddie Lanier hit a basket while Fields scored on a driving layup that drew a foul. The junior sharpshooter hit the free throw to give Pearland a brief 46-45 lead.
With both teams trading baskets, Terrell Taylor drove the lane for a basket with 19.6 seconds giving Pearland a 55-54 lead.
North Shore's Jacoby Harrison (19 points) was fouled and was sent to the charity stripe with 12.0 seconds showing on the game clock.
The 6-6 junior post calmly sank both free throws to hand the Mustangs a 56-55 lead.
After a Pearland timeout, Williams brought the ball down the court and attempted to drive the lane, but was cut off. Williams passed the ball out to Taylor who fired a shot that fell short of the goal with only :02 seconds left in the game.
While the North Shore defense froze, an alert Esiri Omerhi caught the ball under the basket and immediately put the ball in the basket as the buzzer sounded giving Pearland the emotional win while the Mustangs stood dazed in the 57-56 loss.
"This is a great win for us," head coach Steve Buckelew said. "It has been awhile since we won a playoff game and these kids battled against a very athletic North Shore team. I was really proud of the way our inside guys battled in the paint while our guards played outstanding defense and offense."
Fields led the way for Pearland with 16 points including 7-for-7 from the free throw line while Taylor added 13.
Patrick Elledge, Harley Nussman, and Ian Gray not only were defensive giants in the middle, but they combined for 10 hard-earned points.
But the real hero of the night was 6-2 junior Esiri Omerhi who has been on the varsity only a couple of weeks.
"What can I say about Esiri?" coach Buckelew said. "He did exactly as we told him to do during the timeout. We told everyone to go to the basket as we wanted to the final shot to leave our shooter with about 4 seconds left in the game to give us a chance to rebound if we missed. The shot fell short and North Shore didn't realize that Esiri was in the perfect spot to catch the ball and put back in the goal."
Pearland will now face Galveston Ball/Fort Bend Travis winner in the area round.