Curtis holds off Sumner’s comeback bid thanks to Paulsen’s late 3-pointer
With about 35 seconds to go in the game and four seconds left on the shot clock, Curtis junior guard Tyce Paulsen heaved up a 3-pointer over a Sumner defender as the shot clock wound down.
The shot — off-balance and perhaps accompanied by a quick prayer — won’t be winning any form-shooting awards anytime soon. But when the ball banged off the glass and fell through the hoop, breaking the 54-54 tie and sending Paulsen to the line for a four-point play after he was also fouled, he probably didn’t care how it looked.
“I thought there were only a few seconds left (on the shot clock), so I figured, ‘Why not shoot it?’” Paulsen reasoned. “I didn’t really see the shot clock but I knew it was running down. I was like, ‘I’m gonna get it, I’m gonna shoot it.’ That was the plan. I saw he closed out really fast. I knew he was going to come out and maybe foul me, so I just shot it.”
His coach’s take?
“It was lucky,” said Tim Kelly, laughing. “It was damn lucky. The guys were calling out, yelling (counting down) ‘6, 5!’ I remember ‘5’ being the last thing. I saw a foul, so I was thinking ‘Alright, we’re shooting three.’ Then I saw it bank in. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
Fortunately for Curtis, Paulsen is both for the Vikings. The shot may have been fortunate, but the play accounted for just four of Paulsen’s 19 points in the 62-58 win. He was complemented by sophomore guard Zoom Diallo, who poured in 17 points and junior guard Cinque Maxwell, who added 10.
Curtis had to fight off multiple comeback bids from Sumner. Curtis led 50-38 late in the third quarter, before the Spartans stormed back to eventually knot the game up at 54 apiece. Ty Edwards scored a team-high 18 points, while sharpshooter Ethan Canion added 12 points on four 3-pointers and Kaden Lewis scored 11. Curtis, which lacks top-end height, struggled to match Sumner’s physicality in the post at times in the second half.
“We knew that the matchups weren’t going to be — they’re pretty big,” Paulsen said. “We’re not big. So we knew they were going to try to post up a lot. We played them pretty good in the first half and they scored a lot of points in the second half. It was a struggle in the second half but we pulled it out.”
Kelly shared the same sentiment.
“We didn’t do a good job guarding the post,” he said. “I thought we did a really good job in the first half. We brought a lot of pressure, brought help from the other side, got a couple of steals. In the second half, we just kind of stood behind them and let them get it down there.”
Curtis (8-2 overall, 4-0 SPSL 4A) faces a busy upcoming schedule, with nine games left and just time for six practices during that stretch. The Vikings play six league games in the next 10 days.
“We’ve got to get our rest tonight, get our practice tomorrow,” Kelly said. “We have to manage how much time and energy we use at practice. At the same time, we’ve got to prepare. It’s kind of why we host our tournament. We travel, play four in a row. So those aren’t new to us. We have walkthroughs, film. It shouldn’t bother us, it’s just difficult.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 11:04 PM.
