ORIG 12/11/2013 Ryan Brennecke / The BulletinMadras' Devon Wolfe (32) shoots over a Summit defender to score during the first half Wednesday in Madras.

MADRAS — Nick Moyer was simply in the right place at the right time on Wednesday night.

Call it good fortune, call it tremendous instinct. Either way, the end result was never in doubt, at least for the Summit wing.

After sinking the first of two free throws to even the score at 50, Moyer’s second attempt caromed off the rim. The rebound went long, leading Moyer to the left wing, just beyond the 3-point arc.

Fluidly, the senior caught and released. And as time expired, Moyer’s downtown shot found the bottom of the net, sending the Class 5A Storm to a season-opening 53-50 nonconference boys basketball victory over 4A Madras.

“It’s tough to put it in words,” said Moyer, who along with his first-ever buzzer beater finished with 19 points and seven rebounds.

“It feels amazing, but it’s just the first game,” he added. “It’s just the start of the season. We’ve got a long way to go. It felt great, but there’s plenty more to be had this season.”

Moyer posted seven straight points to open the fourth quarter, giving Summit (1-0) its first lead of the night at 43-36.

Madras’ Jered Pichette, however, answered with five consecutive points to keep the White Buffaloes (2-1) within striking distance. Soon after, Reshaun Holliday buried a pair of 3-pointers to give Madras a 49-47 edge with 1 minute, 30 seconds to play.

Moyer countered with a lay-in with less than a minute to play to even the score, but a Storm foul with 4.6 seconds showing on the clock put Pichette at the line. Pichette hit the first free throw, but the second rimmed out, and Moyer corralled the rebound. Moyer was fouled 2 seconds later, and exactly 2.2 seconds after that, the Summit senior drilled the game-winner.

“We learned a lot from our mistakes, and I’m really proud of our guys in the second half for going out there and turning it around, giving a lot of effort and win,” said Moyer, whose team outscored Madras 38-26 in the second half. “If it wasn’t for my team putting out that effort, I wouldn’t have been in position to win the game.”

“Nick’s a guy who’s just got a nose for the ball,” Summit coach Jon Frazier said. “As a three-year starter for us, you just trust that he’s going to make a play.”

Chris Reeves chipped in 11 points and six rebounds for Summit. The Storm pounded the boards for 49 rebounds compared to the White Buffaloes’ 25, and outscored Madras 21-7 on second-chance points.

“You’re going to get beat every time, no matter who you’re playing,” Madras coach Allen Hair said, referring to Summit’s dominance on the offensive glass. “The fact that it was only a three-point game surprised me.”

Pichette finished with a game-high 20 points, nine in the first half, to give the Buffs a 24-15 lead at the break and eight more in the fourth quarter alone.

“Jered’s just one of those players that when push comes to shove, most of the time, he’s going to come up with a play,” Hair said. “He’s just one of those players that as a coach it’s nice to have the ball in his hands because 99 percent of the time, he’s going to make a good decision.”

Holliday added nine points for Madras, Austin Rauschenburg had eight, and the White Buffaloes forced 22 Summit turnovers.

“At times it felt like the season opener,” Frazier said. “In the first half, we were just so sluggish. … But in the second half we just committed ourselves to rebounding, doing some of the more physical things that we typically pride ourselves on. That, I think, put us in a position to win.”

Even with a nine-point lead at the half — thanks to a 9-0 run in the second quarter while holding the Storm scoreless for most of the period — Hair concedes that he was still a little nervous.

“We didn’t play very well,” Hair said of the first half. “We actually did a pretty good job defensively on them, but we didn’t extend the lead. We were getting stops at one end, but we weren’t scoring on the other end. We showed our inexperience tonight.”

That last play, Moyer rebounding his own missed free throw to set up his game-winner, that epitomized the game, Hair said. For Frazier and the Storm, that last play was hard-earned.

“In the first half, we would have been discouraged,” Frazier said. “But in the second half, as hard as our kids played, and as committed as they were, it kind of felt like they’d find a way to win. … No matter what the outcome was, it’s good to have these kids challenged this early in the season and see how they respond.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0307, glucas@bendbulletin.com.