Junior point guard Chase Resch sank the game-winning free throw with  5.3 seconds left as Wenatchee beat Curtis of Tacoma, the defending State 4A boys basketball champs, 59-58 on March 1 in Moses Lake.

Resch drove the length of the court and was fouled while making a layup to tie the score.

The Panthers will play in the State 4A Championships on March 6 at 9 p.m. against Richland at the Tacoma Dome.

The Panthers tried to set up a game-ending play for sophomore Gavin Long, but when Curtis blocked that option, Resch improvised and drove coast-to-coast for the winning three-point play.

“[During the last few seconds] I was thinking that we were almost there… we just needed to push on with everything we had,” sophomore Gavin Long said. “We have been practicing all year to get this far and didn’t want the season to end just yet.”

The Panthers were able to play strong defense and limit the number of Curtis possessions, Assistant Coach Mike Franza said, by outrebounding the Vikings 41-20. Franza credited senior Dillon Sugg with holding the Vikings scoring leader to three points.

Long was the Panthers leading scorer with 19 points, followed by sophomore Grady Miller with 13 points.

The Panthers breezed through the first round of Districts against Eastmont 45-35 Feb. 20, then defeated Moses Lake 56-50 Feb. 22 to secure their spot in the State playoffs.

Multiple members of the team, as well as Head Coach Ron Stone, believe the main reason the Panthers were victorious was their selflessness.

“We were playing for one another,” Stone said. “It wasn’t all about one individual.”

Sugg, a leading scorer for the majority of the team’s games, was proud of the team’s performance against the Wildcats. “We played really good defense. It was a team effort.”

“We played good as a team and we’re going to State. Booyah!” Long said.

Resch has recently been a great contribution to the team. He was the leading scorer with 22 points against Moses Lake.