Monday’s sectional game at Capital City High School in Jefferson City had to end in some way.

It didn’t end the way the North Callaway boys would’ve liked as Cole Camp’s Ethan Shearer had his half-court heave at the buzzer go down to end a three-overtime thriller. The Thunderbirds, who knocked off the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds to win their first district title since 1999, had their season record finalized at 16-13.

Head coach Matt Miller said North Callaway lost the game but didn’t feel like his team lost as both teams displayed a tremendous effort to prolong the game that much. Prior to that game-winner, junior Sam Pezold tied the game with a 3-pointer that touched nothing but the net. Senior Matthew Weber, in his final game as a Thunderbird, finished with 24 points, 12 rebounds and four steals, fellow senior Braydn O’Neal followed with 14 points and four 3-pointers, and senior Trenton Jones picked up nine blocks.

“It was two really competitive teams getting after that, and nobody deserved to lose that game,” Miller said. “Unfortunately, we were on the other side of that. They won it, but nobody lost this game, though.”

In North Callaway’s district tournament, it averaged 43.7 points allowed over the three games, including against deep offensive teams like Montgomery County and Hermann. Cole Camp (22-7) averaged about 42 points allowed through this entire season so the first half wasn’t all that surprising even if it had unprecedented results. Neither team had a player foul out during the extended contest.

Miller said he has never had one of his teams shut out a team for a quarter, and North Callaway did that when it led 3-0 after the first quarter. The Thunderbirds carried a 12-6 lead into halftime and held Gentry Dieckman to seven points only for Shearer and Reid Harrison to finish with 23 points and 18 points, respectively.

“Our focus defensively was to stop (Dieckman) and make some other guys have to hit shots and rebound the heck out of the basketball,” Miller said. “We rebounded the ball really awesome tonight.”

It was eventually a do-or-die situation for them in the waning seconds of regulation for the Thunderbirds as Weber converted on back-to-back buckets to tie the game at 33 heading into the first overtime period, marking North Callaway’s first overtime game this season. The teams were then knotted at 43 after two overtimes to secure a program first for North Callaway as its first ever three-overtime game. Despite the rarity of a game this long for any team, Miller said that wasn’t an issue for his players at this time of year.

“There’s 10 guys out there, and yeah they’re tired and yeah they’re fatigued, but it’s all about mental toughness at that point,” Miller said. “Find a way however long it takes. We’ll be there all night if we have to be.

“We just kept finding a way, but unfortunately, they hit a miracle shot at the buzzer. We defended it well. We had two guys right there on him. There’s nothing we can do about that.”

Seven seniors now have to say goodbye to the program after finishing the season the winners of six of their final eight games as a Thunderbird. Even if Monday’s game didn’t end in a positive way, Miller said his players should still have fond memories playing in an atmosphere like that with the North Callaway showing up to cheer them on.

“I’m really proud of these last couple weeks of how we came together,” Miller said. “You want to be playing your best basketball at the end of the season, and we were. The seven seniors are good basketball players but are good guys in the classroom and good guys in the hallways. They got to experience this. You know, a lot of people don’t get to experience playing in a district championship game — getting able to experience that, then winning it and getting to experience state playoff basketball.”