HAVRE — The state basketball championships have come and gone as we are now into high school spring sports but for the Lewistown boys basketball team, the sting of their loss at the hands of Butte Central’s junior hero Dougie Peoples, is still fresh.
Tied at 68, Peoples delivered what Montanans are calling the shot heard ‘round the state, as he buried a deep 30-foot three-pointer and dagger at the buzzer to the hearts of the Golden Eagles.
“You know with eight seconds left on the clock, it felt like it was going in slow motion, you didn’t know what was going to happen, definitely hoping for a miss obviously but when it went in, your heart just sank,” Lewistown sophomore standout Fischer Brown said.
“I didn’t know that was something that could happen in real life, I thought that was straight out of a movie but it took me about 20 minutes to figure out what happened but it was an unbelievable shot, nothing you can do,” Lewistown junior Royce Robinson added.
Lewistown and Butte Central each had one loss going into the state title game. With the pressure of a state title in the balance, each side knew that they had to bring their Saturday best in order to escape with a Class A championship.
“Obviously there’s a lot of pressure but it’s fun,” Brown said. “It’s a fun feeling everyone’s hyping each other up it’s what you dream of.”
“They’re a great program, we had to come out ready for them and they gave us all we could handle really,” Peoples explained. “It was back and forth and came down to a last second shot, they’re an amazing team.”
As fate would have it, Robinson, Brown and Bryce Graham reunited with Peoples this last weekend as teammates in the 35th annual Hi-Line Invitational Tournament representing the best from all classes.
“I was trying not to be too joking about it around them because I think they’re still sensitive still rightfully so but they’re great players and I was excited to come play with them. Bryce, Royce and Fisher are all amazing,” Peoples said.
Despite some early awkwardness leading up to HIT, the Class A boys went on to win the tournament with Robinson named Most Valuable Player proving that time heals all wounds even ones inflicted from 15-feet beyond the arc.
“We’re good friends,” Robinson said. “He’s fun to play with. He shares the ball. He’s good at everything so I don’t have any problems playing with him. It’s fun actually.”
