RAVENNA – Kyle Beebe has a lot of great memories from playing several different sports over his high school career, but his big moment on Friday night had to top them all.

The Ravenna senior and his teammates had overcome a huge 14-point deficit to take the lead over Montabella late in the Division 3 district championship game at White Cloud High School.

Montabella hit a bucket to tie the score with less than a minute to go, the Bulldogs got the ball back, and there was no doubt about who was going to get the last shot.

It was Beebe, who specializes in last-minute heroics, and he did it again with the title on the line, nailing a triple with two seconds left to give Ravenna a thrilling 56-53 victory and its first district championship since 2002.

Beebe had the ball as the clock ran down and dribbled around the top of the key to kill some time. He thought about driving to the hoop for a layup, saw it was clogged with defenders, so he made a quick move to get an open shot and let it fly from three-point land.

It went in and a big Ravenna crowd went nuts.

“My coach was yelling from the sideline for me to hold it and take the last shot,” Beebe said. “I was looking, and they had all of their guys packed inside, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get in the paint, so I just created some space and let it go. It looked good, but I had shot one three or four minutes before that from the same spot, and it hit the back of the rim. This looked about the same. I was hoping it didn’t hit the back of the rim again!”

Beebe said the really fun part was the fan reaction to the winning bucket.

“It was amazing,” Beebe said. “It was just nuts, the reaction from everyone in the gym. Everyone was going crazy. Ravenna hasn’t been in a spot to win a district in quite a while, so there were a lot of people there from our community.”

Ravenna Coach Courtney Kemp said Beebe is the perfect player to shoot in those situations, and he felt very confident that the senior would come through.

“We trust Kyle, and we knew we wanted to set up a shot for our best player,” said Ravenna coach Courtney Kemp. “Before Kyle even let go of the ball, I knew we were going to regionals. That’s just the kind of thing he does in the last two minutes of close games. We weren’t shocked.”

Beebe also played a big role in helping the Bulldogs overcome their early deficit and get in a position to steal the win.

Ravenna trailed 26-12 after one quarter and 36-24 at halftime, but the Bulldogs came alive in the third quarter, outscoring Montabella 18-4 to take a 42-40 lead heading into the fourth.

Beebe scored nine of those points in the third quarter, and finished with a game-high 25 points, along with 13 rebounds and four steals.

Kemp said the team’s defense was just as important as the offense in the crucial third quarter.

“It was a team effort,” the coach said. “We gave up 26 points in the first quarter, which was inexcusable, then we held them to four in the third and we got 18.”

Winning the district title was huge for the Ravenna program in a number of ways.

The Bulldogs hadn’t won a district championship in nearly 20 years, and that included the 2019-20 season, when they went 20-0 in the regular season but lost to Kent City in the tournament.

Kemp said a lot of former players from that team were in attendance on Friday night, and he was very happy to see them there.

“Some of them had tears in their eyes afterward,” Kemp said about the graduates. “They were the ones who kind of got basketball back on the map in Ravenna.”

The district trophy also eases the sting of not winning the West Michigan Conference title this year after competing for the top spot for most of the season.

The Bulldogs finished 10-4 in the conference, one game behind champion Whitehall.

“This definitely makes us a lot happier,” Beebe said. “We could have at least tied for the conference if we hadn’t let a few games slip away.”

Ironically, Ravenna will now have a rematch against conference foe North Muskegon in the first game of regionals on Monday at 5:30 at Carson City Crystal High School.

The two evenly-matched teams split two games in the regular season, with North Muskegon winning at Ravenna 56-41, and Ravenna winning at North Muskegon 58-53.

The teams have also seen a lot of each other at tournament time in recent years. The Bulldogs knocked North Muskegon out of districts two years ago, and the Norse knocked Ravenna out of districts last year.

“It’s always cool to play new teams in the playoffs, but at the same time Ravenna-North Muskegon has been a great basketball rivalry for the last few years, so it will be cool to play them again,” Beebe said.

Of course Ravenna fans will be nervous before the game – that’s part of being a fan during March Madness – but they can take comfort in one thing: Beebe has already proven that he can deliver against North Muskegon, just like he did against Montabella on Friday.

In the game against the Norse on Feb. 10, he nailed a clutch three-pointer with a minute left, giving the Rulldogs a 52-50 lead. Then he went 4-for-4 at the free throw line down the stretch, helping Ravenna nail down the victory.

So how does Beebe seem to always come through when big games are on the line?

“He is mentally and physically prepared,” Kemp said. “His work ethic and competitiveness in practice is the type of thing you read about. He’s a first one there and last one to leave type of dude, in an era when that is less and less common. He was at the gym practicing free throws on Friday before the bus even showed up to take us to White Cloud. He puts in the work.”

Beebe said he envisions end-of-the-game scenarios in his mind when he practices by himself, and feels ready when the moment actually arrives.

“I just like taking the last shot, and at the end of the game I feel confident taking it,” he said.