Santa Fe Prep overcomes St. Michael’s in double overtime

It’s a rivalry that’s on equal footing now. There was a time when Santa Fe Prep beating St. Michael’s in boys basketball was simply unheard of. On Wednesday night at Perez-Shelley Memorial Gymnasium, the Blue Griffins proved things are different now.

The Blue Griffins shook off a stunning fourth-quarter collapse — and an atrocious 15-for-46 night at the free throw line — to beat the Horsemen 65-63 in double overtime in the second round of the District 2-3A Tournament. The win sends Prep (17-11) into Thursday’s semifinals at No. 2 seed Santa Fe Indian School.

It’s the furthest Prep has ever been in the annual 2-3A postseason event and, by all accounts, sends a message that maybe it’s time to consider the Blue Griffins a threat in the upcoming Class 3A state tournament.

Now all they need to do is hit those freebies. “I wasn’t thinking about having nightmares about free throws tonight because I was already having them during the game,” said Prep senior forward Mitch Grover. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

It was Grover who came up with the biggest bucket of all when he hit a driving layup with 44 seconds left in the second overtime to put the Blue Griffins in front for good, 64-63. The hop-step shot set the stage for a wild finish as the Horsemen missed a potential go-ahead shot with 18 seconds left, watched Grover miss one of two foul shots with 15 seconds remaining, then had the home team turn it over two more times in the closing seconds to end it.

And, oh yeah, two more missed free throws by

Prep with 1.6 seconds on the clock.

“We actually do practice those, twice a day in fact,” said Griffins coach Joe Vigil. “It’s just a confidence thing. Once it goes it all kind of, you know, goes like tonight did. We’ve fixed some things with our free throws, but at this point, it’s kind of too late. You just need to get out there and make them.”

Vigil said the goal was to control three elements in Wednesday’s game; rebounding, limiting turnovers and making foul shots. They did one of those three things, out-rebounding the Horsemen (15-13) by a 49-36 count. Grover, Van Anderson and Oren Putnam were a big part of that, using their size and length to limit the damage at both ends. They combined for 14 rebounds in the fourth quarter and both OTs.

If the missed free throws and 27 turnovers (to 11 for the Horsemen) weren’t enough to give Prep headaches, the near-total collapse in the fourth quarter certainly did.

The Griffins were in total control, opening what felt like an insurmountable 52-41 lead with less than three minutes remaining in regulation. St. Michael’s closed the quarter with a 14-3 run that ended with Lucas Gurule beating the final buzzer with an equalizing 3-pointer for the corner — after, of course, Prep failed to seal the deal at the line.

Griffins guard Oliver Winkler missed one of two shots with 6.7 seconds left in regulation and Prep leading, 55-52. He made the first and missed the second.

Horsemen guard Nick Angelley cleared the rebound, got it to Kamal Stith, got it back with two seconds left and found Gurule near the baseline.

The Horsemen held them all for the final two-plus minutes of the first overtime, going into a stall in a 59-59 tie. Stith took a 3-point shot with three seconds left but missed. A last-second putback try by Horsemen forward Ryan Hunt was knocked away from behind by Putnam, sending it to a second OT.

“I mean, that was the greatest game I’ve ever been a part of,” Grover said. “We started selling the game at the end and I almost gave myself a heart attack.”

Grover and Putnam scored all of Prep’s points in the third quarter and Grover had all but two of his team’s 10 points in the overtime sessions. He finished with 29 points while Morgan Field had 20 and Anderson nine.

Moving into Thursday’s game at SFIS is just another opportunity to put Prep on the map, the players said.

“I think it shows we belong with all these teams,” Putnam said. “We’ve had some great games against St. Mike’s and now we have this one [Thursday]. Let’s see what happens.”

Before cutting his team loose for the night, Vigil had one last message for his guys.

It has become a thing after most games. The players have heard the message dozens of times in their careers and the final word is a chance for all of them to join in at the top of their lungs.

“You know I love you guys like you’re all my own boys,” Vigil said, pausing to smile while taking a deep breath. “Yeah!”

And with that, one of the best wins in Prep history was in the books.