Ryan Brennecke / The BulletinRidgeview’s George Mendazona (5) celebrates with his teammates after hitting the game-winning shot against Mountain View Friday at Ridgeview.

REDMOND — George Mendazona cemented his legacy with one shot.

That was all it took. It was all Ridgeview needed. With six-tenths of a second left in the Intermountain Conference contest on Friday night, and with the score knotted up 54-54, the Ravens needed a miracle.

Mendazona, the second option on the inbounds play, delivered.

Just in front of the Ridgeview student section, Mendazona caught a pass and quickly released a deep 3-pointer. For six-tenths of a second, the gymnasium was silent. That is, until the junior guard’s buzzer-beater splashed through the net, sealing the Ravens’ 57-54 boys basketball win over Class 5A top-ranked Mountain View and eliciting a mob around Mendazona on the court.

Nathan Covill had to sit down. He rubbed his temples as he relaxed on the Ridgeview bench, his heroic guard still being swarmed by teammates and spectators. What an incredible shot, the Ravens’ coach offered, one that kept his team’s playoff hopes alive.

Covill then added: “It’s pretty damn amazing.”

“I’m a little lightheaded,” Mendazona said minutes later. He supposed he got a decent look at the rim. Honestly, Mendazona conceded, the play was a blur.

But as he gathered himself, he remembered what went through his mind as the Ravens (6-5 IMC, 15-7 overall) took the floor out of a timeout with 0.6 seconds remaining.

There was not just less than a second left in this game. With only one conference game remaining on Ridgeview’s schedule, and with the Ravens in fourth place in the IMC standings, there was essentially less than a second left in the season.

The top three teams from the IMC advance to the postseason, and Ridgeview needed a miracle to stay in the hunt. Mendazona answered the Ravens’ plea, and the 3-year-old program picked up its first-ever victory over Mountain View.

“When you look at a program in the Central Oregon area that’s established themselves as dominant and a tradition of winning, that’s something tough for a young group of kids to get over at a 3-year-old school,” Covill said. “The message was, ‘I’m tired of losing to Mountain View.’ … What a huge game.”

Mendazona finished with a game-high 26 points, 17 of which came in the second half, and none bigger than that game-winning 3-pointer.

Truthfully, Mendazona said, noting Mountain View’s rally from eight points down in the fourth quarter to take a 54-52 lead with only 2 1⁄2 minutes left in the game, the Ravens needed that miracle shot. “It would have been pretty tough to pull that one out in overtime,” he admitted.

Tanner O’Neal logged 11 points for Ridgeview, and Justin Alvarez and Carson Manselle each scored nine points.

Davis Holly led the Cougars (8-2, 18-4) with 13 points and five assists, and Austin Albin totaled 13 points and 11 rebounds. Jordan Vance recorded eight points and four boards, but Mountain View was sent home still in search of an outright IMC title. The Cougars will hope to achieve that on Tuesday in a home game against Bend High.

“It’s about the performance of the evening,” Mountain View coach Craig Reid said. “We don’t look at any of the extra stuff. You’ve got to come out and play. We know that as far as how we played tonight is not going to get it done if we get to the (state) tournament. It’s not going to happen. That’s the biggest thing you take away from it, because the performance has to be better.”

With one shot, Mendazona became a Ridgeview legend, and he has put the Ravens in position to qualify for the postseason in their first season in Class 5A.

“We had a nice talk on Wednesday and talked about how we’re still alive (to advance to the postseason),” Covill said. “As much as we don’t think it, we’re still alive. We still have opportunities. We just had to take care of business.”

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