DES MOINES - Champions make championship plays in crunch time.
Jayden McGregory drove the length of the floor and hit a contested shot with about a second left to give West Des Moines Valley a 58-56 overtime win over Linn-Mar in one hellacious Class 4A state basketball tournament semifinal Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
Valley (22-3) seeks to become the seventh team in state history to win three consecutive state titles when it plays Central Iowa Metro League rival Waukee Northwest in Friday afternoon's championship game.
"I knew the ball was going to come to me, so I've just got to make the best of that opportunity and score the ball," said McGregory, who took an inbounds pass out of a timeout with 8.6 seconds left. "That's what I did."
Linn-Mar (22-3) did everything but win this game, ending up losing it in the most brutal fashion.
The Lions had a two-point lead in the final seconds of regulation, 52-50. Valley's Zay Robinson took a 3-point attempt that hit the back heel, went high into the air, then bounced off the front of the rim.
That created a free for all for the rebound. Valley's Marcus McGregor grabbed it initially but missed a shot as he was falling down, Robinson missed a falling putback attempt, but Valley center Trevin Jirak was right there to put it home as the buzzer sounded.
"It hit the back rim, and it felt like it was up there for an hour," said Linn-Mar's Tyler Hilton. "Everyone was just trying to get it, trying to get it. We just got unlucky, and they got it."
"It was just a 50-50 ball, and we didn't come up with it," said Linn-Mar's Davis Kern. They did."
Valley took an early 8-2 lead, with Linn-Mar clawing right back to tie it after the first quarter. Virtually nothing separated the teams from there.
Valley had a five-point lead at halftime, with a a Jirak inside bucket giving the Tigers a 40-38 lead headed to the fourth. The Northern Iowa signee had 15 points and 13 rebounds in a delectable head-to-head matchup with Linn-Mar's Kern, who has signed with South Dakota State.
Kern, the Metro's all-time career leading scorer, went out with a 16-point, nine-rebound game.
"I'm just so proud of the team," he said. "No one expected this but ourselves. We proved a lot of people wrong this year. It's been the most fun I've had in my basketball career. I love these guys more than anything."
A Hilton dunk off a brilliant feed from Mason Matson gave Linn-Mar a 51-49 lead with 47 seconds to go in regulation. The Lions got a defensive stop, with Matson making one of two free throws for a three-point edge with 25.7 to go.
McGregory made one of two free throws with 20.5 left, with Robinson rebounding his miss after the second one. That led to the chaotic final sequence.
"We stole one," said Valley Coach B.J. Windhorst.
"They're a championship team, they made championship plays," said Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson. "You've got to give them credit. We needed a rebound to win the game, and we couldn't get it. Once it got extra time, it was tough. Super proud of our guys. They fought, they hung in. That's a really good team, and all we can do is tip our hat."
Valley took a four-point lead in OT, only to have Linn-Mar tie it on an Eric Wright free throw with 1:01 left, a defensive stop and a 3-point shot from Payson Nietert with 10 seconds left. Wright finished with 13 points.
"Knowing what's at stake, we don't want to lose," Jirak said. "We could have easily been done, but we kept playing, kept fighting. We didn't want to be done. Big-time players make big-time plays in big situations. All of us made great plays towards the end of the game."
Hilton finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds for Linn-Mar, which had a 16-game winning streak stopped. McGregory led everyone with 23 points, the last two winning the game.
WEST DES MOINES VALLEY (58): Kiki Deng 4-8 2-2 10, Marcus McGregor 0-3 0-0 0, Trevin Jirak 6-12 3-4 15, Zay Robinson 4-15 1-4 10, Jayden McGregory 9-17 3-4 23, Colton Roemmich 0-0 0-0 0, Jayden Davison 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-55 9-14 58.