Toney

When Carter Nichols’ game-winning 3-point shot slipped through the net, it was like none of the thousands of other baskets his dad and coach, Eric Nichols, had watched in the Baker High School gym over the decades.

And not just because his son was the hero.

Eric wasn’t the only person who felt a special thrill at that instant on Wednesday afternoon, March 2, one that preserved the Crane Mustangs’ unbeaten record and kept alive their hopes for a Class 1A state boys basketball championship.

Eric and one of his assistant coaches, Dave Toney, are both Baker High School graduates.

Both have seen dozens of basketball games in the BHS gym — including during both the district and state Class 1A tournaments that have been fixtures here for decades.

But neither had ever coached a team playing in the state tournament on this familiar glossy hardwood floor.

And for Eric it was of course an epic scene to watch his son finish a game in such dramatic fashion.

“Amazing,” Eric said.

Carter, a 16-year-old sophomore, said in an interview on Thursday, March 3, that the shot felt good when the ball left his fingertips.

He was right.

The 3-pointer that gave Crane a 44-41 win over North Douglas in Wednesday’s quarterfinal game wasn’t supposed to happen, though.

With the score tied at 41 and just 5 seconds left, Crane was inbounding the ball after a timeout.

“We had a play drawn up, but they took away that, and I was the second option,” Carter said.

The first option couldn’t have worked out any better.

With the final few seconds of the game ticking away, he didn’t hesitate to shoot after taking what he called a “great pass” from teammate Jared Zander, even though Carter was at least a few feet behind the 3-point line.

“There wasn’t much time for me to drive to the hoop,” Carter said.

He took the shot with 2 seconds left, and the clock went to zero just after the ball dropped through the net.

Carter said it was his first game-winning shot.

For his dad, and for Dave, it was their first chance to coach in the Class 1A tournament in the same gym where they spent so much time while growing up in Baker City (or near Haines, in Dave’s case).

Eric, 44, is a 1995 BHS graduate.

Dave, 60, graduated from Baker High School in 1980.

They coached together at Burns High School.

Two years ago Eric, who is the principal at Crane Union High School in Harney County about 35 miles southeast of Burns, took over as head coach.

He brought in Dave, his longtime friend and fellow coach, as an assistant.

But they didn’t get the chance to bring the Mustangs to Baker City for the state tournament in 2021.

Neither did any other coach.

There was no state tournament in 2021.

The event, like so much else, was canceled due to the pandemic.

But now the tournament is back, and Crane, the top-seed, is vying for both a perfect season and a state title.

It was of course mere coincidence that Eric and Dave’s first game as coaches in the tournament — the event for which both have many fond memories — ended with Eric’s son making the sort of shot that kids imagine themselves swishing as the buzzer blares.

But both said this week would be a memorable experience even without the pulse-quickening conclusion to Wednesday’s game.

“It’s special to come back to Baker,” Dave said.

“It’s an awesome, awesome experience,” Eric said. “There’s nothing like it.”

Both said that when they were kids growing up here, the district and state basketball tournaments were major events each year — the twin basketball holidays, in effect.

“I spent so many hours at the tournaments,” Eric said. “I announced a lot of games.”

“If you were an athlete at Baker High School, you worked at the tournaments,” Dave said.

Dave, who retired from the Bureau of Land Management in Burns in 2018, said he hasn’t lived in Baker County since 1987.

After Carter’s game-winning shot set off pandemonium in the Baker gym on Wednesday afternoon, with spectators spilling out of the bleachers onto the court, Dave said he was amazed at how many people greeted him with familiarity even though they hadn’t seen each other in years — or decades.

Eric, who moved from Baker City around 1997, had plenty of people to shake hands or exchange hugs with, too.

Both his dad, Bruce Nichols, a Baker County commissioner, and his mother, Marilyn, were watching as their grandson made the winning 3-pointer.

Bruce Nichols said it was thrilling to watch Carter’s shot.

And although Carter, unlike his dad, didn’t grow up in Baker City, he too has a connection to the place that transcends basketball.

“I definitely come up here a lot, with my grandparents and my great-grandma here,” he said.

Eric’s grandmother, Marjorie Peck, who is 99, lives near Haines.

“It’s an awesome, awesome experience. There’s nothing like it.”

— Eric Nichols, Baker High grad and Crane boys coach, talking about the Class 1A state tournament