Galindo’s buzzerbeater lifts Cibola over Kofa in wild game
Ivan Galindo said he would probably remember this game for the rest of his life, then paused to think about what he just said.
“I’ll remember this for the rest of my life — oh yeah,” Galindo said, to which CJ Atherton, fellow Cibola senior teammate, responded with another “oh yeah.”
Atherton was the middleman on the play of the night in the wildest boys basketball game of this season. He received a three-quarter court pass from Ryan Curtis-Sanchez, then pitched the ball to Galindo, whose 3-point, buzzer-beating shot swished to break a tie and give the Raiders a 64-61 win against Kofa on Tuesday at Cibola.
“When that shot went up, it just seemed like the whole gym just went silent,” Curtis-Sanchez said.
“When that shot went in, I was in shock,” Galindo said.
Galindo sprinted around
7-5 AIA, 2-0 region 5-5 AIA, 1-1 region
the court, found CurtisSanchez and his teammates, who all celebrated in a disorderly and chaotic fashion that resembled the game they just won.
“It’s all adrenaline,” Galindo said. “You’re just going crazy; you don’t really know how to act. You’re celebrating with your family, your teammates — they’ve always been there for you from day one. It’s a great feeling . ... We’ve put in the work, and I feel like we deserved this win.”
The inbound play Cibola ran — and, coincidentally, practiced the last two days — is called “fire,” a page out of the Duke and Vanderbilt playbook. Curtis-Sanchez, a former football quarterback, chucks it to Atherton, the former wide receiver, who then looks for the open man, which happened to Galindo a few feet away.
“It works every time because the kids are so concerned about not touching anybody,” Cibola coach Ron Bratton said. “They don’t want to go and get the ball because they’re afraid of getting a foul.”
The silence when the ball soared toward the basket came after the loudest stretch from the crowd and a sequence of mayhem that almost turned what should’ve been a somewhat comfortable Raiders (7-5 AIA, 2-0 6A Southern) win into a devastating loss.
With 19 seconds left and Cibola — holding a 61-56