Late Three-Pointer Rescues Esperanza

With Esperanza trailing by a point and the seconds ticking away on the game clock, Beth Weidler was her team’s unlikeliest heroine.

Her three-point basket with two seconds left gave third-seeded Esperanza a 44-42 victory over Century in a Southern Section Division I-AA playoff game Wednesday.

The second-round victory moves Esperanza (22-5) into the quarterfinals Saturday against Fontana (20-4), a 59-56 winner over Diamond Bar.

It sent Century (22-6) home in tears.

Weidler, a reserve who had taken only two shots, had not scored before letting loose from from two feet behind the three-point arc. Positioned to the left of center, Weidler’s shot was long and to the left.

It banked off the glass.

By the time Weidler landed in a teammate’s arms, the buzzer had sounded. The crowd of about 1,000 at Esperanza was either stunned or storming the floor.

“We’ve done a few buzzer-beaters before, but nothing of this significance,” said Esperanza Coach Marc Hill, in his 15th year.

Weidler admitted the shot wasn’t designed to go off the glass.

“Kim [Omer] said, ‘Shoot it!’,” said Weidler, a junior. “I knew there was no time left, but I knew it was in before it ever went in.”

Not everyone was so sure. Century Coach Jeff Watts was almost directly behind Weidler.

“I thought we did a good job defensively,” Watts said. “If she doesn’t bank it in, she doesn’t beat us.”

Century’s Aprile Powell (10 points, 14 rebounds) fouled out with 1:15 left, and Leah Combs made one of two free throws for a 41-40 Esperanza lead. But Allison Napier (15 points, nine rebounds, four blocks) answered with a six-footer to put Century back on top, 42-41, with 45 seconds remaining.

Combs (13 points, 11 rebounds) came up short on the other end, but in its effort to hurry down the floor, Century threw the ball out of bounds with 15 seconds left. After a timeout in which Hill drew up a play for Combs to shoot a six- to eight-footer, Century, which had played a zone, used a man-to-man defense that pressured Omer, the point guard. Omer (10 points) ended up on the right side of the basket, opposite Combs (who was double-covered), frantically dribbling toward the top of the key. With four seconds left and hounded by defenders, she flipped the ball to Weidler, a junior with a 5.6 scoring average.

“Time was running down so much, I knew there wasn’t enough time for me to get off a shot,” Combs said. “I was afraid [Weidler] was going to try to pass the ball to me.”

In another Division I-AA game:

Victorville Victor Valley 53, Capistrano Valley 51--For the third consecutive time in the four years since its last section final appearance, the Cougars (19-9)--seeded third--failed to advance beyond the second round.