Ririe’s Brown comes up huge in closing seconds of third-place game

RIRIE — The Ririe Bulldogs finished last week’s Boys Basketball State Championships with a third-place trophy, the program’s first trophy in seven years.

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Beating New Plymouth to become one of seven local teams to earn a trophy required some last-second heroics from senior Cooper Brown, the EastIdahoSports.com Athlete of the Week.

Ririe trialed the Pilgrims by three points with four seconds left in the 3A third-place game. But the Bulldogs had the ball, inbounding on their offensive end.

Junior Camden Stosich found Brown on the far end of the court. Brown caught the inbounding pass, but with two converging defenders, didn’t have time to take one dribble into a shot. Instead, Brown hoisted from 35 feet and found the bottom of the net.

The Bulldogs finished regulation with all the momentum, and outscored New Plymouth 16-12 in the extra period to earn a 64-60 victory.

Brown was rock-solid all week, averaging 12 points per game during the state tournament, on 41% shooting from 3-point range (11-of-27), a significant improvement from the seven points per game he averaged during the season leading up to the tournament.

In Saturday’s victory, he added four rebounds, three steals and two assists, helping the Bulldogs erase a three-point halftime deficit.