“It looked extremely rocky, for the Mudville nine that day…”

Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s opening line to the immortal “Casey at the Bat” was appropriate with 31.4 seconds left in a basketball game Saturday night in which Wayland trailed Rockford 48-47 and the Ram’s top scorer, Michael Peterson, went to the free throw line for two shots.

Peterson had canned virtually all of his free throw attempts all night long, but the inexplicable happened — he missed both, Zac Nieukoop came down with the rebound and Wildcat coach Mike Hudson called a timeout for a last shot at winning. The ‘Cats came down the court and at first failed, but then junior guard Avery Hudson came up with a loose ball and tossed in a layup with just five seconds to go.

Wayland somehow had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the second round of the Cornerstone Holiday Tournament and the improbable 49-48 triumph propelled its overall season record to 4-1. And it took away some of the sting of a 63-56 loss last Tuesday night to Forest Hills Central in the tourney’s opening round.

It was a somewhat strange ballgame throughout the evening.

A tenacious Wildcat man-to-man defense limited the Rams to just two field goals in the entire first quarter and only five for the first half. Yet Wayland, which couldn’t hit the floor if it dropped the basketball, let them hang around and led only 22-16 at intermission.

Other than a 12-foot jumper and a three-pointer from Austin Johnson, the ‘Cats scored on nothing but layups, some of them as a result of Rockford’s failed full-court man-to-man pressure attempts.

With Hudson running the offense, sometimes on fast breaks, Mitchell Dykstra was on the receiving end of passes inside for the lay-ins and he had 11 points by halftime.

But Nieukoop, Wayland’s 6-7 junior center, was whistled for two fouls in the first two minutes of the contest and he was banished to the bench until the third quarter. And junior guard-forward Mike Kelly drew his fourth foul midway in the third period.

The Rams, who showed a lot of offensive improvement after the break, took advantage of Wayland’s terrible shooting from the outside and were able to creep to within one point, 32-31, at the start of the final quarter. Leading the way was Peterson, who scored on layups, short jumpers and at the free throw line… until just before the end.

The lead see-sawed throughout the fourth period, with neither team able to take more than a two-point advantage. Peterson would score for Rockford, but then the ‘Cats would go to Nieukoop, the tallest man on the floor, to answer.

The Rams were up 48-47 at the 1:06 mark when coach Nick Allen called time to set up his stall offense. Even now he probably would say the delay did its job, as Peterson was fouled at 31.4 second and stepped to the line to shoot two.

That set up the last-minute heroics for Nieukoop and his rebound and Hudson and his loose-ball layup.

Peterson led Rockford with 18 points for the evening. Guard Andy Heider, who drilled a couple of three, one more than all Wildcats combined, finished with nine.

Hudson and Dykstra shared the Wildcats’ scoring honors with 13 points apiece and Nieukoop had 10, eight of them in the crucial final eight minutes. Johnson scored seven points in support.

Interestingly, Wayland escaped with the win despite making only one three all night and despite making only one free throw in the second half.

Wayland will begin O-K Gold Conference competition at home Friday evening against Middleville Thornapple Kellogg.

PHOTOS (Courtesy of Kenny Ritz): Austin Johnson   Zac Nieukoop