Two weeks ago, to the day, Chaska was on the losing end of a long shot at the buzzer of a Metro West conference basketball game.
As Michael Scott from The Office once said, “How the turn tables.”
Noah Slinde took a picture-perfect inbounds pass from fellow senior Jimmy Coddington, turned, and hit a long three-point shot as time expired, to beat the St. Louis Park Orioles 80-78 on Jan. 24, Friday night.
Slinde’s shot capped off a back-and-forth game that the Star Tribune featured as their “Game Of The Week” and live-streamed to many.
The Hawks jumped out to an early lead, led by Senior Tray Lenzen, who ended the game with a team-leading 28 points.
Chaska led at the half, 36-28, but the Orioles came out strong in the second half. Their stars, twin brothers Marley and Micah Curtis (both committed to playing college ball at Division I University of North Dakota) led St. Louis Park’s high-scoring comeback in the second half.
Several Hawks complimented Lenzen’s high scoring output, most notably sophomores Tyler Forrest, Eli Herzog and Kalin Jochum, with 16, 12 and 8 points, respectively.
With 40 seconds to go, the Orioles hit a three-pointer to go up three. Forrest, a team captain, was able to tie the game from the free throw line, 77-77. A questionable foul on Chaska with 1.5 seconds left put the Orioles on the line, where they made one free throw to take a 78-77 lead.
Chaska and St. Louis Park each called time outs to get set up for the final play of the game.
According to Coddington, who was designated to throw in the inbounds pass, he had to improvise on what was planned. “The original inbound play broke down so I was just trying to find an open guy,” said Coddington.
That open guy was fellow Senior Captain Noah Slinde, who got away from his defender near the right sideline at half court.
“They ended up setting up differently defensively so when the ball was inbounded, I just found an open area right before half court. Jimmy threw me a great pass and I knew I had time to take one dribble, so I did, then when I shot the ball, it felt really good leaving my hand and I knew it had a chance to go in.”
It had more than a chance, as the ball went right through the net.
“When the shot went in, it was straight chaos,” said Slinde. The Hawks players on the floor and bench, and several fans from the stands, immediately surrounded the winning shooter in a jubilant scene, reminiscent of the one they were on the other side of in their game against Chanhassen two weeks prior.
“It was definitely a great team win and one of the coolest things I’ve been a part of,” said Slinde.
Jimmy Coddington had just one compliment for his teammate and fellow co-captain. “Slinde is the GOAT,” said Coddington, referring to the acronym that means “Greatest Of All Time.”
On this night, the acronym was pretty close to apt, as Slinde hit one of the greatest shots in recent memory for the Chaska Hawks boys’ hoops program.
