Anton Watson is cold-blooded. Gonzaga commit’s OT buzzer-beater sends Bullpups past Richland to 4A title game

It was the kind of shot kids dream of making while shooting at their backyard hoop.

Gonzaga Prep junior Anton Watson drained a 3-pointer as time expired in overtime of Friday’s 4A boys state semifinal, giving the Bullpups a 53-50 and sending them to Saturday’s state championship game.

The shot was perfect, but with just 3.4 seconds remaining for the Bullpups to run a sideline out of bounds play, Watson just wanted to make sure he got a shot up.

“Get myself open, and get a shot off,” Watson said. “And Kobe mentality – the Mamba. When I shot it, I wanted it to go in. I’m not looking to miss.”

Watson’s shot ended what proved to be a great basketball game between two equally matched teams. The Bombers led by nine in the second half, but the Bullpups rallied to reclaim the lead with 3 minutes, 7 seconds to play in the fourth quarter at 45-44. The score remained the same until a steal and slam by junior Jamaari Jones gave Gonzaga Prep a 47-44 lead with 20 seconds remaining. Richland answered right back with a 3-pointer by junior Garrett Streufert that tied the game at 47 and send the game to overtime.

In overtime, both teams had scored just two points when Watson got the opportunity to win it.

“To be honest, I’m just glad we got the ball in his hands,” Gonzaga Prep head coach Matty McIntyre said. “I’m glad we were able to get it there. We weren’t sure if they were going to double him or deny him (the basketball). I thought Jamaari set him a great screen to get him a catch. He must have had a great look at it. We had three seconds on the clock, so I was kind of hoping he would put it on the ground and get to the foul line, but he liked what he saw. Really, the play was successful just because Anton had the ball. Pretty much the entire second half, the comeback, it was nothing special, we just got the ball in Anton’s hands – and he’s special.”

The loss was just Richland’s second of the season, both of which have come to Gonzaga Prep and both by just three points.

“That was just an incredible game,” McIntyre said. “It seems like we’ve had a lot of those with those guys. That’s a heck of a good team and (we are) two evenly matched teams. It was fun to be a part of.”

Junior Cole Northrop led the Bombers with 16 points, but their 7-foot-4 center Riley Sorn finished the game with just six points and seven rebounds – in part because of the defense played by senior Devin Culp and Watson.

“Anton and Devin have the size and the strength to go one-on-one with Riley, so they did a tremendous job,” McIntyre said. “I’m not sure what the gameplan was. We certainly wanted to make them shoot contested two-point shots, and down the stretch everybody gets tired and some of those shots have less of a chance to go in.”

In addition to his game-winner, Watson added another highlight in overtime when he dunked on the 7-4 center.

“That was fun,” Watson said. “The coaches were telling me to get a dunk on him, and I’ve been waiting for that all year. It felt really good.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2018 at 12:47 AM with the headline "Anton Watson is cold-blooded. Gonzaga commit’s OT buzzer-beater sends Bullpups past Richland to 4A title game."