Junior Brandon Maatz drained a buzzer beater for the Bison Boys Basketball team to cap off a 72-71 home win over the Monticello Magic last night. The win brings the boys’ overall record to 15-6 and a tie with St. Michael-Albertville for First Place in the Mississippi 8 Conference.
“When I shot the ball first, and it went in, I didn’t know what happened,” Maatz said, “until Aidan [Bouman] came up and hugged me and everyone piled on top of me.”
With four of the team’s regular starters on the bench – two with foul trouble and two with injuries – the team relied on a deep bench and a play they practiced on Monday.
“We ran that exact play [in practice] for five minutes,” Maatz said. “Mr. Ortmann drew it up. They were drawing up late-game scenarios.”
The Bison play at St. Michael-Albertville on Friday night at 7:15 p.m. The game could decide the conference championship.
Last night’s win against rival Monticello put the season series in favor of the Bison 2-1. In their previous matchup, the boys lost by 11 points and were looking for a big win.
“The bench players stepped up and played well without all of the starters,” Junior Matthew Willert said, “It was a big momentum win over a team we really wanted to beat and we’ve got some confidence going forward now. We’ve got to keep it up.”
