Cole Purcell sends Bushland past Canadian with game-winning three-pointer
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BUSHLAND — On Tuesday night, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James broke the NBA all-time scoring record with a third-quarter jumper that will live on forever.
It may not be remembered forever, but whoever was at Bushland High School on the same night saw Cole Purcell make a shot that was pretty difficult to forget.
Down two starters inside, Purcell was counted on to lead the way for the Falcons on offense. He scored 22 points, but none of them were more important than the three he got with 12 seconds left on the clock to put Bushland up 35-32 and on the way to winning the game.
It was a crucial win for the Falcons (16-8, 7-1), who were without the services of two players that would have made a difference in the paint against the the scrappy Wildcats (6-7, 4-4).
Canadian led for much of the second half and trailed by four with a little more than two minutes to go. Tate Butcher made a layup to pull the Falcons within two and Matt Bridges tied it up with a pair of free throws with 1:35 left on the clock.
All of that set up Purcell's corner three-pointer to win the game.
"I was just thinking about attacking the rim and getting a bucket," Purcell said. "We have two guys out right now and we needed some scoring, so I needed to step up my scoring game. That's all I was thinking."
It was a tight, defensive battle throughout.
Camren Cavalier had the Wildcats up 9-7 on a layup in the final minute of the first quarter before Purcell hit a buzzer-beating three to put Bushland up 10-9. The Falcons went up 15-11 before Canadian went on a 7-0 run to take an 18-15 edge late in the first half.
Stockton Blount hit a trey with 30 seconds until halftime to tie things up at the midway point.
The Wildcats scored the first four points of the second half until Bushland moved ahead 23-22. Canadian closed the third period on a 7-0 run, including a layup by Connor Miller with 40 seconds to go to make it 27-23 in favor of the Wildcats.
Purcell hit a triple midway through the fourth to get within one point, but Canadian extended the lead and went up 32-28 on a layup by Preston Miller with 2:24 left.
Butcher and Bridges made their plays after that before Purcell sunk the game-winner.
There are still two games left in the regular season and Spearman is right behind Bushland in the district title race. Still, taking a win of this magnitude in the close kind of contest will only serve to help the Falcons for the postseason.
"Pretty much every game has been like that for us (in district)," Bushland coach Connor Copley said. "We started out with a one-point win, then a close loss, now we've won six in a row and they've really all been close. We just try to learn from every game and keep getting better and keep building off it. I think we're starting to peak at the right time."
Bushland hosts Spearman at 7:30 p.m. Friday, while Canadian visits River Road at 6:30 p.m. the same night.
Bushland
Cole Purcell 22, Taggert Thrash 2, Stockton Blount 3, Tate Butcher 2, Matthew Bridges 2, Grant Whaley 2
Canadian
Trace Mitchell 3, Preston Miller 4, Nathan Wagner 2, Camren Cavalier 11, Riggs Pennington 4, Connor Miller 7
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Cole Purcell sends Bushland past Canadian with game-winning three-pointer
