JOHN DAY — The Grant Union Prospectors had a chance to steal the game at the end but could not overcome a barrage of 14 three-pointers by the visiting Heppner Mustangs, falling 71-70 in a highly competitive conference matchup on Friday, Jan. 26, at Dean Nodine Memorial Court in John Day.

Heppner would open the game with a three-pointer en route to a 9-2 run. The Pros would battle back to tie the score at 11 with 2:45 left in the first, but the Mustangs simply kept scoring, taking a 24-18 lead into the second quarter.

The Mustangs would increase the margin to as much as 11 early in the second quarter before the Pros would begin to chip away at the lead. At the half, the Pros would find themselves within striking distance, down six at 40-34.

The Mustangs would come out hot in the third, building another 11-point lead in the period. The Pros again would respond, cutting the deficit to just four following a Talon VanCleave field goal with just over 3:00 left in the third.

The Pros would still find themselves playing catch-up headed into the final period, down 61-55.

The Pros took their first lead since the first quarter at 64-63 with a mere 3:00 left in the game. Heppner’s hot shooting put the Mustangs back in front at 68-67 with 1:40 left in the game following three-pointer.

Down one with less than a minute to play, the Pros had no choice but to foul and hope the Mustangs missed their free-throw attempts. There was just one problem: The Pros played a clean enough game on defense that the Mustangs were not in the bonus when the need to foul arose.

As a result, the Pros spent valuable seconds fouling the Mustangs to send them to the free-throw line. When the Mustangs finally got there, they hit two free throws to go up 70-67 with less than :30 left in the game.

Still, the Pros had a chance to tie the game with 15.2 seconds left in regulation. It was not to be, however, and the Mustangs would ultimately sink another pair of free throws to take a 71-67 lead with 4.6 seconds left, all but ending the game.

Lukas Blood would sink a three as time expired to leave the Pros with a one-point loss at 70-71.

VanCleave did all he could to will the Pros to a win, finishing with a team-high 22 points. Blood added 14 points and Cash Madden ended the game with 10.

Grant Union head boys basketball coach RC Huerta said the team anticipated Heppner’s three-point accuracy but hadn’t expected the Mustangs to be so prolific from beyond the arc.

“Caden George made eight threes,” he said. “I knew he’d been hot for the past couple games in a row, we fully anticipated that, but we didn’t quite anticipate that it was going to be that hot.”

The Pros continued to battle despite seeing a plethora of three-point shots go through the cup. Rather than simply pack it in and live to fight another day, the Pros hung tough, something Huerta attributes to the culture he’s trying to cultivate.

“We’ve been trying to build a culture of team — our team acronym is FUSE, and that’s family, unity, success and equality,” he said.

“When you put up 70 points against a team and they have 71 and it’s based on threes, sometimes that’s just how it goes, and they understand that.”