PIAA Class 6A Boys Basketball: Sniras’ last-second rim shot scores winning tune for Garnet Valley
Every basketball player fantasizes about hitting a shot at the buzzer to win a game, especially if it’s a playoff or championship contest.
Some players get to live that dream. Few get to do it twice.
Garnet Valley’s Jake Sniras is among the lucky few.
The 6-4 sophomore forward hit a 3-pointer as time expired Saturday to give the Jaguars a stunning, 46-45 victory over Cumberland Valley in the opening round of the PIAA Class 6A playoffs Saturday afternoon.
It was Sniras’ second game-winning buzzer-beater of the season. He hit a 3-pointer to give the Jaguars a 65-63 win over Coatesville in double overtime in the Pete & Jameer Nelson Classic at Widener in December.
“This wasn’t even like a shot,” Sniras said. “I threw it over my head almost.”
It was good enough to send the Jaguars (18-9) into the second round for the second year in a row. Garnet Valley will meet District 11’s Parkland (19-9) at a site and time to be determined next Wednesday. Parkland knocked off Henderson in the opening round by 56-39.
Garnet Valley needed Sniras’ heroics despite jumping out to a 13-3 lead after one quarter and taking a 24-14 advantage into the locker room at halftime. Max Koehler and Sniras had a big hand in giving the Jaguars that early advantage. Koehler scored eight of his team-high 15 points in the first quarter and 10 in the first half. Sniras had six of his 13 points in the opening 16 minutes.
“A lot of teams don’t take us seriously at the start,” Garnet Valley coach Mike Brown said. “We’re not that physically imposing and it helps us a lot when we jump out to big leads. But they’re good. I knew they’d come back. It was just a matter of how quickly.”
The Eagles (21-5) stormed back in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 39-38. Nolan Buzalka had seven of his team-high 15 points and Nolan Gilbert netted seven of his 13 in the period to get the District 3 runnerup Eagles back into the contest.
From that point, it was a back-and-forth affair. Cumberland Valley scored the first four points of the final period to take a 42-39 lead. Garnet Valley went back in front, 43-42. Buzalka buried a 3-pointer with 33 seconds left to put the Eagles back on top, 45-43.
That set the stage for the Jaguars and Sniras.
Brown usually doesn’t like to call a timeout in game-ending situations but he did in this case with 2.6 seconds left.
“You don’t know what kind of defense they’re going to be in and you have to inbound the ball,” Brown said. “But we were so scrambled, kind of out of sorts. We were all over the place. That’s why I called the timeout with two seconds left.”
Brown set up a play for Sniras and the Jaguars executed it perfectly.
“They were smart. They switched,” Brown said of the Eagles. “(Sniras) was guarded but to his credit he worked hard to get open and at least get a shot off.”
After coming off a screen, Sniras took a pass from Jack Krautzel right in front of the Jaguars’ bench, took a step to his right and let fly. The ball rattled on the rim a few times before falling through the net as time expired. That set off a wild celebration.
“The kid that was on me (Buzalka) also was a sophomore,” Sniras said. “He knew my game. He was all over me. He was denying me. I screened for a teammate (Koehler) and then he screened for me. (Buzalka) was denying me. I rolled into an open space and that’s all I needed to get the shot up.”
A wild celebration ensued.
“Our guys didn’t quit,” Brown said. “They kept their heads and fought them off and did what they had to do.”
