Senior Night Pinnacle Basketball Game

Four seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Marcus Libman struggles to get the ball inbounded to senior, Nico Mannion. The buzzer rapidly winds down and Mannion hustles down the court with three defensive players on him. Mannion quickly pulls up to the three-point line and takes a shot. The gym grew silent as they watched the ball hit the rim. The crowd runs onto the court cheering for the winning shot.

An extraordinary game happened for the Pinnacle High School basketball team on February 1, 2019. The Pinnacle seniors played their last official home game for the regular season, also known as “senior night”.

The teams went head-to-head throughout the whole game. The opposing team, Chaparral High School Firebirds, grew a nine point lead in the second quarter bringing the score to 55 Chaparral- 46 Pinnacle at the start of half-time.

"We had poor defense in the first half... and we had to turn that around in the third and fourth," explained Trent Brown, starting senior for the varsity team, who currently remains out for an injury.

During the third quarter, however, Pinnacle bounced back by one point causing the score to become 71 Pinnacle-70 Chaparral. Leading to the fourth quarter, the teams went head-to-head, both keeping the score close proximity to another.

The score read 88 Pinnacle - 88 Chaparral. Marcus Libman, starting junior for the Pinnacle basketball team, impounds the ball to Nico Mannion. Mannion runs down the court with three defenders on him and approached the three point line to took the shot. The shot brought the team to a 91 Pinnacle-88 Chaparral score with Mannion’s buzzerbeater, resulting in a victory for Pinnacle.

In addition to Mannion hitting the winning shot, he also scored 57 points on his last official home game.

“I knew that shot was going in. Nico’s a big time player he makes big time plays. He’s a big time player... he got 57 on senior night,” said Josh Saad, senior and member of the Pinnacle CRAZIES.

Players of the Pinnacle basketball team spoke on their reactions of Mannion’s shot.

“Right when [Mannion] released it we knew it was gonna go in. He has a certain magic from that same spot,” explained Brown. “We worked hard enough, and we all just kind of lost it and tackled him.”

The basketball team now holds the title of region champs which leads them into playoffs beginning on February 14.

“It was very exciting for us, it clenched us the region champs for sure, so it was a lot of fun,” said Libman, starting junior on the basketball team.

The final scoreboard read 91 Pinnacle - 88 Chaparral and .remains a memorable night for the 2018-2019 Pinnacle basketball team.