Buzzer-beater! Indio stuns Yucca Valley, wins DVL title in dramatic fashion

When Jack Durant let a 3-pointer fly from the left corner at the end of Monday night's game against Yucca Valley, a lot was riding on whether or not it went through. 

The game, a Desert Valley League title, an undefeated league season, a home playoff game, all of it would be the Rajahs' if Durant's 3-ball found the bottom of the net. 

The perfectly drawn-up play by coach Ivery Thompson helped Durant get free and without hesitation, he launched it. Swish! Indio wins 44-41. The crowd went wild, Durant was mobbed by his teammates and Indio survived a tense, emotional clash with the Trojans. 

"It was a good look. I'm not usually a corner shooter, so it was a little nerve-wracking, but it went down," said Durant who has been the Rajahs' go-to guy all season. "I like those moments. There's intensity and pressure, but also reward."

Durant is right. The reward for this one is a perfect 7-0 league season to give the Rajahs their first league title since the 2018-19 season. The Rajahs will be the No. 1 seed out of the DVL when the playoff brackets come out in a couple of weeks. 

The game was a bit of a grinder with neither team finding much easy offense, but even if it wasn't aesthetically pleasing for the first 30 minutes, the last two had all the drama you could want. 

The game was tied 21-21 at the half, but Yucca Valley clamped down even more on defense and scored the first nine points of the second half to go up 30-21. A 3-pointer by Jacob Canizales with four seconds left in the third quarter were the only points the Rajahs scored as Yucca Valley appeared to be in control.

The Rajahs still trailed 38-30 with 2:40 left, but a 3-pointer by Tron Turner and a 3-pointer by Durant on back-to-back possessions cut it to 38-36. A gritty Yucca Valley team clung to the lead, but couldn't put Indio away. Durant hit an NBA 3-pointer with 10.4 seconds left to tie the game 41-41, and the Rajahs crowd finally had something to roar about.

The Trojans were in position to get the last shot, but as the Rajahs pressed on the ensuing in-bounds, a Yucca Valley player was called for pushing Turner and the Rajahs got the ball back.

Indio had the ball under its own basket with 10 seconds left. Yucca Valley, with fouls to give, smartly fouled on two consecutive plays which cut the time down to 5.6 seconds left.

That's when Thompson dialed up the winning play during a timeout. Durant threw the in-bounds pass to Joey Perezchica near the free-throw line. As the defense converged on Perezchica they forgot about the in-bounds passer Durant who got a return pass in the corner. As he launched the shot, the Rajahs' bench rose, knowing that Durant is made for these moments. 

Sure enough, the ball swished in, a half-second later, the buzzer rang and the Rajahs had themselves a league title. Thompson pumped his fist for the crowd. The other Indio players tackled Durant and the Trojans could only look on disbelief. 

The only time Indio led the entire second half was at the buzzer. 

"We stuck together, we didn't give up, trusted each other trusted our coaches, and most of all we kept it together on defense," Durant said. "This is big. This is big."

Durant finished with 18 points on six 3-pointers. Turner added seven points, including five in the fourth quarter and the key drawn foul. The Rajahs made nine 3-pointers and only eight 2-pointers in the game. 

The Rajahs are now 7-0 in league play. The Desert Valley League decided two weeks ago to end the season after seven league games instead of 14. That made tonight's game a de-facto title game as Yucca Valley was also undefeated in league play entering the game at 5-0.

Cooper Hopton led the Trojans with 17 points. Demar Smith added eight. 

Shad Powers is a sports columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.