krobinett@journalnet.com

Some will point to Storm Shelley sinking two free throws with five seconds left on the clock as the reason the Century boys' basketball team defeated Pocatello in front of wild crowd on Friday.

Others will claim it was the Diamondbacks drawing two charging fouls in a minute or the Indians frittering away chance after chance down the stretch.

But Cody Shelley will credit building a 47-40 lead with three minutes to play.

"That stretch right before the final minute is what won us the game," the Century coach said. "We had a nice lead, and no matter what happened in the final minute, we always had the cushion."

That's a good thing, because a whole lot happened in the final minute of this 4A Fifth district battle.

After Shae Andrews made a layup and Zac Korrell hit a 3-pointer on back-to-back plays to pull Pocatello to within 47-45 with 1:06 to go, the game turned ugly.

A packed Century gym became louder than ever, but the teams struggled to do anything right.

Neither team made a field goal from then on, each squad missed two key field goals and both sides combined for five turnovers.

Storm Shelley's free throws were just about the only positive thing that occurred down the stretch. Especially considering the Pocatello student section was heckling with chants of "Daddy's boy" while he made them.

"We didn't play the best as a team there at the end," said Storm Shelley, who led all scorers with 22 points. "We turned it over and missed some shots, but we made the shots when we had to. I guess that's all that matters."

Pocatello coach Lee Ralphs wishes he was saying the same thing today.

After rallying from an early double-digit deficit to make it a one-possession game in the final minute, his Indians couldn't get anything to go through the net.

Michael Decker, who led Poky with 14 points, missed two free throws and an open jumper late, and the Indians were called for two charges Ralphs didn't agree with.

"We had chances at the end," he said. "But we didn't make any breaks for ourselves, and we certainly didn't get any breaks from the officials."

Either way, Cody Shelley said he figured the game would be close all along.

"Pocatello is a tough opponent, and I respect them a lot," he said. "I thought it was going to come down to a one or two possession game, and it did. Both teams wanted it really bad."

With the loss, Poky dropped to 7-11 overall and 1-3 in district play. The Indians must now wait to see if they host Preston or go to Preston in the first round of the district tournament. It will come down to a tie-breaker.

Century, on the other hand, finished off a perfect run through district play and improved its record to 12-6 and 4-0.

Next up for the Diamondbacks is another Gate City rivalry game at Highland on Wednesday. With a win there, Century will go undefeated against its in-city competition.

That's something Storm Shelley wants badly to happen. But for now, he, right along with everyone else on the Diamondbacks roster, is just happy his team went undefeated in district play.

"That means a lot to us," he said. "Going undefeated was one of our goals coming into the season. We had to fight the whole way to get it, but we got it."