Murr plays hero in No. 11 TD’s comeback

The final dagger in a Riverhawk road comeback.

With his team down 62-61 and time running out, Murr drained the game-winning 3-pointer as time expired to give the No. 11-ranked Riverhawks a 64-62 victory over Milwaukie Tuesday in a boys’ basketball thriller played at Milwaukie High School.

Before Murr’s heroics, The Dalles had a defensive stop, but Milwaukie’s Marcel Nemarundwe pulled down the offensive rebound and had his putback blocked, but a foul was called with three seconds remaining, sending the Mustang senior to the line.

Nemarundwe missed the first free throw, but made the second one.

After using a final timeout to draw up a play, the Hawks had to go the length of the floor for either the tie or win.

Murr retrieved an inbounds pass from Dalles Seufalemua, made a few dribbles up the court and from just inside the midcourt stripe, rose up and banked in his 3-point shot from 40-feet away to give the Riverhawks their third consecutive win.

“I told (head coach Nathan) Morris when the other kid was shooting his free throw, I was going to hit a game-winner,” Murr said. “I love this crunch-time stuff. It felt like I was in a video game, but, in reality, I’m just happy we won. This is the greatest feeling in the world.”

At the start of the game, the Hawks trailed by a 12-2 margin, but ended the quarter on a 19-3 run to take a 21-15 lead.

No. 15 Milwaukie (2-3 overall) turned the tide with a 16-8 second-quarter output and led 31-29 at the break.

In the third period, Murr tallied 13 points, Josh Nisbet added two baskets, Seufalemua hit a 3-pointer and Oscar Fernandez hit a field goal for a 22-18 run and a 41-39 lead entering the final frame.

Through the ups and downs of this showdown, the Riverhawks proved that they can rise up to whatever challenges they face.

“I told them that I was proud of them for not giving up,” TD head coach Nathan Morris said. “We fought back from adversity. Even when there was a tough call at the end of the game, we were able to fight through some adversity there and not give up and keep ourselves mentally checked into that game, rather than just checking out and letting them win.”

The Riverhawks (5-2) totaled 23 field goals, 10 3-pointers and shot 8 of 10 from the line, with Murr scoring a game-high 29 points on 10 field goals, four 3-pointers.

Nisbet added 16 points, nine in the second half, Jacob Hernandez and Seufalemua chipped in six apiece, Fernandez had four and Henry Lee sank a second-quarter 3-pointer for his three points.

Dustin Stradley tallied 12 points, Adrian Gama tacked on seven and Aaron Talley finished with five points, as the Mustangs hit for 25 field goals, eight 3-pointers and shot 4 of 7 on free throws.

Since back-to-back losses to Sandy and Sisters on Dec. 6 and 8, The Dalles appears to be trending forward on a win streak against the tougher part of their non-league schedule.

Maybe it was a wakeup call, maybe something was said or maybe the players took a long, hard look in the mirror, knowing that those performances were not going to be good enough to compete with some of the top-tier teams in the state.

“We went back to our core values. We went back to being unselfish, working hard and outworking the other team. We made that a priority,” Morris said. “It was a matter of the kids taking it upon themselves to do those things. In our first couple of wins, we outworked our opponents, but those two losses, we got outworked. Last night, I thought we still got outworked a little bit. I thought we should have beaten that team and it should not have come down to a final shot, but sometimes that’s what happens on the road.”

Up next, The Dalles hosts No. 6-ranked Bend (5-2) at 6 p.m. Friday from Kurtz Gym.

Radio station 1440 KODL is slated to broadcast the game, or fans can get the live stream through www.kodl.com.