Peoria Notre Dame beats Peoria High with a buzzer-beater from beyond half court
PEORIA — Jacob Johnson had never hit a halfcourt shot. Or a buzzer-beater.
The Peoria Notre Dame senior checked both off his basketball bucket list on Tuesday, swishing his heave from just past mid-court to give PND a 58-55 win over Peoria High. The Irish (3-6) picked up the nonconference victory after having lost five of their last six.
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Johnson took the inbounds pass with 2.5 seconds on the clock. The 5-foot-11 guard then took three dribbles and fired a shot around 4 feet behind the half-court line.
Nothing but net.
"I looked at the clock," he said, "and I go, 'There's not a lot of time left.' ... I just shot it. I thought I airballed it. Swished it somehow."
What an ending.
PND wins 58-55 on a buzzer-beating 3 by Jacob Johnson.
Peoria High had tied the game on a 3 from LeShawn Stowers.
Check out the final 19 seconds below. #pjspreps pic.twitter.com/HcG5tdHHkd— Adam Duvall (@AdamDuvall) December 14, 2022
These late-game heroics from Johnson came after Peoria High (5-2) had rallied after trailing by as many as 14 points early in the fourth quarter. The Lions made an 11-2 push over the final 2:41 capped by a 3-pointer from LeShawn Stowers.
Coming out of a timeout with 19.8 seconds left on the clock, Peoria High worked the ball around the perimeter. Stowers took a ball screen from Eli Love and rimmed in a deep triple from deep behind the arc.
That set up Johnson's final shot.
"I purposely didn't call a timeout," PND coach Tom Lacher said, "because there wasn't a whole lot of time left. ... Jacob Johnson had the presence of mind to push the ball up and to get a shot off. At that point, that's all I wanted.
"We've had it happen to us before quite a few times, and we haven't had one in a long time, so that was nice."
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Iowa commit Cooper Koch scored a PND team-high 17 points to go with nine rebounds. Eoin Dillon chipped in 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Kayden Hudson was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field to score 13.
De'Kwon Brown scored a game-high 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting before fouling out for Peoria High. Mikequese Taylor scored 12 and Eli Love added 10 and six rebounds off the bench.
These two Big 12 Conference foes will next meet in a league game at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 6 with PND hosting at The Kitchen.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA basketball: Peoria Notre Dame beats Peoria High on buzzer-beater
