Centralia College falls short in double-OT thriller to Lower Columbia
The Centralia College men's basketball team appeared to be sailing toward one of the most emphatic statement wins in recent program history.
Entering Wednesday's NWAC West opener against Lower Columbia College, the Trailblazers had lost 12 straight times to the Red Devils dating back to Feb. 11, 2019. The Red Devils walked into Centralia College's Michael Smith Gymnasium as the reigning NWAC champion and with a 10-2 record to start the 2025-26 campaign.
Within the first few minutes of game action, a casual fan in the stands would have guessed that such a resume belonged to the Trailblazers.
Centralia College scored the first 14 points of the game and built a 20-point lead of 31-11 in the first half behind Clay Morgan's hot start with 10 first-half points. Morgan, a Tumwater graduate, connected on a T-Bird-to-T-Bird alley-oop pass to Andrew Collins for a thunderous dunk. But the Red Devils' offense woke up and managed to slice the lead down to 12 at halftime.
"We executed offensively really well. Defensively, we did a great job moving, switching and rotating," Centralia head coach Josef Chirhart said.
The Red Devils continued to gnaw away early in the second half, and their small bites turned into gulps as each bucket brought them closer. Napavine graduate James Grose came to life for LCC in the second half, including a layup that gave the Red Devils the lead at 61-60 halfway through the second half.
From that point, it was an evenly matched showdown between an NWAC powerhouse in the Red Devils and an up-and-coming NWAC program in the Trailblazers having a resurgent season. The teams traded clutch shot after clutch shot, and the majority of LCC's clutch shots came at the hands of Grose.
The biggest shot of the night came in the final eight seconds of regulation with Centralia ahead 88-85. Cole Chester lined up a game-tying 3-pointer from the left wing and splashed it with 1.3 seconds left to send the game into overtime.
The Trailblazers took a two-possession lead in the first overtime period, but missed dagger shots by Centralia and a double-clutch layup by Grose with 5.2 seconds left knotted the score at 96.
On the final play of the first overtime, Maximus Holliman missed a wild floater attempt off the backboard, but as the buzzer went off, Luke Brewer, who was sprinting toward the rim hoping for a putback attempt, was clobbered by Noah Schow under the basket, sending both benches into a frenzy as no foul was called.
The referees consulted with one another for five minutes before confirming that no foul would be called and that action would continue into a second overtime.
"It was a bang-bang play. I think there was a foul," Chirhart said.
Grose and Morgan exchanged big buckets in the first two minutes of the second extra five-minute frame. Dalton Stevens earned the go-ahead shot for Lower Columbia with a putback layup with 28.1 seconds left to put the Red Devils in front 108-107. Morgan missed two looks from behind the arc, and LCC prevailed in a game in which it once trailed by 20.
"It's a tale of two halves. That's basketball. It's a game of peaks and valleys. You've gotta weather the storm," Chirhart said. "LCC has a very well-coached group. They never got too down, and we got a little tight. Some of the gimmies and some of the bunnies just didn't fall for us. But it's a great opportunity for us to learn. If we want to be a team that plays in March, you've got to have these kinds of games, win or lose."
Morgan led all scorers with 30 points, while Julian Ibarra scored 20 points. Shay Brannon added 16, Luke Brewer posted 14, and Maximus Holliman logged 11.
Centralia College (10-5, 0-1 NWAC West) will take a trip up north to face Tacoma Saturday afternoon. The Trailblazers return home on Saturday, Jan. 17 when Highline comes to the Hub City.