Did you really think the Griz wouldn't come back and try to make it a game? I thought the Griz would come back. I really did.
The Griz were playing reasonably well in the first half. They missed some open shots. They had 3 calls where they apparently stepped out of bounds, but not bad plays. There were two bad traveling calls by the refs. They had too many turnovers, but most weren't horrible plays. Weber was playing very well, and hit some early 3-pointers. They looked unbeatable in some respects, but I knew they couldn't do that for the whole game. No team can, and I had seen that they weren't unbeatable when the Griz trounced them in Missoula. The ball was bouncing to Weber on all of the missed shots and loose balls. Weber was hustling and in position, but the Griz weren't loafing. From about 2 minutes to 10 minutes, the refs had more than a half dozen bad calls. Multiple times the Weber player stepped into contact, and got the call, but the contact was very minor. They gave Weber 3 early fouls that were completely undeserved. Fortunately, Weber was missing some freethrows.
I truly thought the Griz would come back. They weren't playing poorly. They were playing hard. I knew they wanted to win badly. I knew they had heart. I had seen that AJ was had said yesterday in the paper that it was "destiny". The Griz were not backing down. Everyone was playing hard. They just needed some breaks and some spurts. They got stops early in the second half. Weber wasn't nearly as good or as focused. The Griz got some shots to drop. Suddenly, they were in it, and it was a battle. And during this time, AJ took over. You could see that he was going to make play after play and make shots. His shots were dropping, even with some bouncing to get in. He was focused and on fire. Weber was tightening up. They couldn't play offense. They weren't as good on defense. On a Griz possession in perhaps 5 minutes to go, AJ took the ball from Cherry between the Weber free throw line and midcourt. I assume AJ said give me the ball, and Will was saavy enough to just flip the ball to AJ.
Hats off the AJ, the team and the coaches. Great win. I can see I need to re-arrange my schedule for the next game.
I can't even tell you how excited I am for the team, and how proud I am of their season and their win. They must be special guys.