PLEASANT VIEW -- The statistics were eerily similar across the board. Both the Weber Warriors and the Northridge Knights had 22 field goals. They each had 25 rebounds apiece.
Friday's Region 1 game came down to the last shot in the final second of the game. Down by one, Northridge guard Preston Christensen took an inbounds pass the length of the floor with 7.4 seconds left on the clock and sank the winning runner from five feet out to propel the Knights to a thrilling 58-57 victory.
"We got in the huddle and coach drew up a play to get me the ball and I knew I had to make something happen," Christensen said of the final play. "I knew it was going in. I had to take what they were giving me because Karson (Casteel) was playing so well underneath and I was able to get to the basket. Coach (Sims) always tells us to defend our home floor and try to sneak one somewhere and that was here."
Both teams battled back and forth early on. The Knights grabbed the lead in the second quarter behind the play of Casteel. He dominated inside with a variety of post moves and grabbed some key rebounds throughout the first half.
With Northridge taking a slight 28-21 advantage in the locker room, it was Weber's turn to execute and play good defense. They pared the lead down from seven to one to make the score 42-41 heading into the final quarter.
Baskets by Hayden Schenck and Dylan Rogers put the Warriors out in front by six halfway through the fourth.
Weber had a chance to seal the victory up one with Jake Shaw at the line, but he missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and made up for that with a key rebound on a miss from Northridge to get back to the line. Instead, Shaw missed the front end of another 1-and-1 to set up Christensen's game-winning shot.
Casteel led the Knights with a game-high 23 points and 11 rebounds while Christensen added 16 in the win. The Warriors got 19 points from Nielsen and 15 from Jordan Jones in the loss.
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