CALDWELL — As soon as teammate Ty Colton's final shot bounced away in Rockland's 56-55 loss to Salmon River, Rockland senior Colton Christensen covered his head with his jersey.
This was not the way the story was supposed to end for the Bulldogs. This had been the season their nine seniors dreamed about, and nobody thought it would end with a loss in the quarterfinals.
The problem was that Rockland had dug its hole too deep.
The Bulldogs outscored Salmon River 16-5 over the final 3:19 of the game, but twice failed to get the basket they needed to take the lead as their state championship dream ended against the Savages on Thursday afternoon at Caldwell High School.
“We let them jump out on us in the third quarter,” Rockland coach Dan Ralphs said. “We got down 12 (51-39), and you can't do that in a state tournament. The kids played their hearts out and dug themselves back in, but it was too little, too late. If we had another minute or two on the clock, the outcome could have been completely different.”
Actually, another five seconds would have made a world of difference for the Bulldogs (16-3). Rockland had a chance to win the game after Salmon River's Jake Manley missed a pair of free throws with seven seconds remaining, but the fact that the Bulldogs were out of timeouts cost them.
After the Savages (17-6) knocked the ball out of bounds, the Bulldogs were down to 3.7 seconds left to set up a winning shot. All Colton had time to do was drive toward the hoop and hope for a bank or that senior forward Matt Nelson would be able to get a rebound and have time for a putback.
Nelson did get the rebound, but it came a second after the buzzer had sounded, sealing the Bulldogs' fate.
“We had Matt in the right spot, but it was too late,” Ralphs said. “Ty got off an off-balance shot, which wasn't what we wanted.”
Christensen had 19 points to lead the Bulldogs, while Nelson added 10 and Tyrell Turley finished with eight after hitting two 3-pointers in the final minute that gave Rockland a chance to pull off the miraculous comeback. Manley had 15 points to lead Salmon River.
Rockland will play Castleford at 6:15 p.m. tonight at Caldwell in the consolation round. The Bulldogs are in the rare position of being a consolation team with a purpose, since they will be trying to extend Ralphs' 37-year coaching career by one more game.
Regardless of whether that happens, Ralphs left proud of his players.
“I think everybody there saw that these kids have big hearts and aren't going to quit on anything,” Ralphs said. “They fought all the way, and I was proud of them. We just waited a little too long to get our engines going.”
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