My favorite Mountain View little big play tonight 1/15

Note: My continuing series of notes, trying to pick an interesting play from a basketball game that was not necessarily a game-deciding play.

Every hustle play counts, even when the shots aren’t falling: It started with a missed 3-pointer. It pretty much had to start with a missed 3-pointer because there were so many of them for the Mountain View Thunder on Tuesday. The Thunder struggled in a 69-51 loss to Columbia River.

The Thunder made 4 of 21 from 3-point range and two of the makes were in the closing minutes of the game, when River was too far away for Mountain View to make contact.

But there was this one cool play for Mountain View that showed they weren’t giving up. They were down 19 with less than two minutes left in the third quarter.

The 3-point shot bounced high, and Luke DuChesne battled for the rebound. He ended up with the ball in his hands for the offensive board, but he was falling out of bounds. He threw it back toward a teammate. Shane McCauley ended up with the ball. DuChesne, meanwhile, hustled back in play, and was open in the corner.

McCauley got him the ball. Unfortunately for the Thunder, this just wasn’t their night from outside. DuChesne missed the 3-pointer.

Again, the Thunder weren’t giving up on the play.

Nolan Biggs, who had just entered the game, got to the ball. He was under the basket and had Columbia River’s 6-foot-8 post Isaiah Smith heading his way.

Rather than giving away a decent scoring chance with a pass away from Smith, Biggs used his basketball IQ to try to score AND keep it away from Smith. He shot an extra high attempt that hit off the glass and came back down through the hoop.

It was a great hustle play by all the Thunder, and it resulted in two points.