DIVISION IV BOYS: Hoye’s free throws lift Eagles to league crown

Word of Life's basketball team played arguably its worst game of the season against a division opponent on Saturday.

But the Eagles still walked away as league champions after making all the key plays down the stretch.

Elijah Hoye made two free throws with 29.8 seconds left to break a 50-50 tie and lift Word of Life to a 54-50 win over Adelson School in the Division IV Southern League final at Desert Pines. Both teams advance to the state tournament, which begins Friday in Reno.

"All game long, man, we were out of sync," said Word of Life coach Percy Lockett, whose team shot 32 percent from the field and had 11 turnovers. "I don't know if we were thinking, 'We won that (semifinal) game (Friday), so we're automatically going (to state) either way.' The intensity level that we normally play at wasn't there tonight.

"We were out of character. We were playing a selfish brand of basketball tonight, and that's not our style. It feels good to still pull it out. It just shows that we're doing some things in other areas well."

Hoye, a senior, received the ball at the top of the key with 35 seconds left after Lockett opted not to call a timeout following an Adelson School turnover. Hoye drove to the paint and was fouled before taking a shot, and went to the line for a one-and-one opportunity. He made both shots to give the Eagles the lead.

"I mainly didn't want the defense to set up," Lockett said. "I'm not really a special situation type of coach. We got our sets that we run night in and night out, regardless of what the other team is doing. I didn't want to put any added pressure on them by calling a timeout. … I didn't have anybody (in mind), but (Hoye's) not a bad choice."

Adelson School had a chance to tie it at the other end, but couldn't get a shot off. The Lions threw the ball out of bounds to give it back to the Eagles with 50 seconds.

Word of Life's Trent McCall, who was 10-for-12 from the free-throw line, hit two more free throws with 5.3 seconds left to seal the victory.

"Paul (Kelker) is normally our ball handler and I told Trent, 'I need you to go take over at point,'" Lockett said.

The Eagles finished 20-for-24 (83.3 percent) from the free-throw line.

"That's something that we spend a lot of time on it practice," Lockett said. "So I'm pretty confident when we go to the free-throw line. We're usually a high-percentage team from the line. It was expected."

Adelson School tied the game at 50, when Jacob Elharrar hit 1 of 2 free throws with 1:30 remaining. He missed the second free throw, and teammate Brandon Pappas got the rebound and was fouled putting a shot back up.

Pappas missed both of his free throws — the second rolling off the front of the rim — but the Lions got the ball back as a Word of Life player touched the ball before flying out of bounds. The Lions turned the ball over, setting up Hoye's free throws.

Hoye had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Eagles (18-3), who won their first league tournament. McCall finished with 15 points, and Malik Moore scored nine for Word of Life.

Pappas had 12 points and eight rebounds for Adelson School (12-9). Jake Buchman and Miles Hagen each scored nine for the Lions.

Contact reporter Ashton Ferguson at aferguson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0430. Follow him on Twitter: @af_ferguson