The shot spun toward the basket, and from his vantage point, Raytown junior Devin Drew thought it would fall through the hoop. But a hunch told him to go for the rebound anyway.
“Why not?” he would say.
The instinct kept Raytown’s season alive at least one more game.
Drew cleaned up a teammate’s missed jumper and put back a game-winning layup as the buzzer sounded, lifting Raytown to a 39-37 victory over Rockhurst in the Missouri Class 5, District 14 semifinals at Park Hill South.
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On a night in which neither team could seemingly get a layup to fall, the last one finally did. It was Drew’s second field goal of the evening.
“I thought the first shot was in, but I knew mine was in,” Drew said. “What a game. They played hard; we played hard. What a game.”
Raytown, 19-6, made only two shots from the field in the fourth quarter.
But a defensive resurgence ensured it was enough. Rockhurst, 13-14, scored 18 points in the opening quarter but was held to 19 combined over the final three. Carter Selzer led the Hawklets with 11 points.
Raytown held just one lead in the first half (3-2), but a trio of three-pointers from Marcus McGee — all of them in a 60-second span — surged the Bluejays in front.
“They were so long and athletic that they were able to affect a lot of our shots,” Raytown coach Cody Buford said. “So we focused more on protecting the ball and rebounding and let the rest take care of itself.”
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