MANCHESTER – It seemed that ninth-seeded Bow High’s season was all over with 1.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter, down by two against No. 8 Manchester West. But it was still their basketball on the baseline.

Senior forward Keenan Hubbard inbounded from under the basket right to the chest of junior forward Peyton Larrabee, who elevated at lightning speed to tie the game, 46-46, and force overtime. The Bow section erupted in cheers, but the game was still wide open with four minutes of overtime awaiting.

In the OT, Larrabee kept on scoring. He got another in the paint, assisted by junior forward Jake Reardon, but the Knights’ Tevin Edmunds answered. With a minute left, Larrabee got an offensive rebound, towering over West’s defenders, and laid up the winning bucket in a 53-52 Bow victory.

“That’s a play that we have where we have different options, and right there, with that much time left we knew they were going to look at Jake (Reardon), so we called the slip play. Peyton did a good job slipping, and Keenan made a good pass,” Falcons head coach Eric Saucier said.

The moment wasn’t lost on the night’s key player.

“It means a lot because, in the past, we haven’t really played well away in the playoffs. My freshman year, we lost to Coe-Brown by a lot. Last year we lost to Hanover by a lot. It means a lot, with a lot of these people coming back,” Larrabee said.

With the win, Bow will meet No. 1 Pembroke (16-2), which was watching from the stands at West, in the D-II quarterfinals on Friday at 6 p.m. The Falcons lost to the Spartans twice earlier in the season and once in the Capital Area Holiday Tournament, so it will take an even bigger performance to take down the top-seeded team in the division away in its home.

“There are no expectations. You just want to go in and you want to play hard. We’ve lost to them three times; the pressure’s off us. We just have to go and play hard. We know we can compete with them,” Saucier said.

At the end of the game at West, the Falcons showed the defensive growth they have experienced under Saucier, who was known as a defensive specialist during his time at ConVal High School.

“He (Saucier) was just telling us that we needed to stay disciplined. We knew we were going to get our shots. So as long as we were getting stopped, we were going to stay in the game,” Reardon said.

Defense remains a Saucier emphasis at Bow.

“I don’t give them a break in practice. If they don’t guard in practice, they run. They know that because that’s where it’s won in the playoffs,” Saucier added. “They always think, you got to outscore teams. The playoffs, you want to win? It’s going to be grinded out.”

The overtime period was intense, but the Falcons showed their mental fortitude and toughness despite the exhaustion.

Junior guard Brendan O’Keeffe was fouled early and made his first free throw before missing the second. Fortunately for the Falcons, O’Keefe gathered his own rebound and drained a jumper to go ahead by three.

The Knights stayed in it and Edmunds, who led his team with 19 points, scored two free throws and a pull-up jumper to go ahead by one. There were no easy buckets for the Knights, as the Falcons forced them to take tough shots.

Larrabee’s game-winner gave West ample time to respond. The Knights dribbled and dribbled and dribbled some more, trying to find the winning bucket, but Bow’s physical defense forced a misstep on a baseline drive for a turnover with less than 20 seconds and allowing the Falcons to pull off the upset.

There was no lead greater than four points throughout the game. The Falcons (13-6) used their size to haul in and crash the boards, outrebounding the Knights, 30-8, but they were also turned over in transition by West’s shifty guards.

The game was back and forth down to the wire, but it always seemed like Bow’s larger stature would be able to best West (12-7) on both ends. Larrabee, Bow’s tallest at 6-foot-4, got three blocks, 11 rebounds, and was second in scoring for his team with 15 points.

O’Keeffe provided spacing for the Falcons. He rained in three 3-pointers in the first half and scored tough buckets down the stretch despite facing tough defenders on the perimeter. He led Bow with 18 points. Meanwhile, junior forward Reardon was able to move the ball well out of pressure for the Falcons – despite the Knights’ full-court defense – thanks to good off-ball movement by the team.

“We game-planned for it. We knew something like that was going to come at us. And there’s a certain scouting report that’s out that you need to take me out of the game. These guys stepped up really big for me and they made it easier on me,” Reardon said.

Overall, the Falcons could have had the game in hand much earlier, but small mistakes on offense cost them. The turnovers and occasional careless defense against smaller players were a struggle. The Falcons missed 13 free throws as each attempt was jeered by West’s fans, and they seemingly could not build a larger lead.

The win was huge for the Falcons, and the showdown in Pembroke will be a challenge for both.

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com.