ZANESVILLE — So close, but yet so far …

For the second time this postseason, an Ohio Valley basketball team has been taken out by a Tornado. Wednesday night inside Winland Memorial Gymnasium at Zanesville High School, West Muskingum’s Noah Morrison’s buzzer-beater lifted the Tornadoes to a thrilling, 59-57, verdict over St. Clairsville in an Ohio Division V, Region 19 boys semifinal.

Several weeks ago, the Tornadoes ended a fine season by the Union Local girls in an Eastern District championship game, on a buzzer-beating three-pointer.

“I thought we deserved a better fate,” a somber St. Clairsville head coach Ryan Clifford offered. “That was typical of the way we’ve played all season.”

The tough-to-swallow loss ended the careers of four seniors – Kaden Clifford, Niko Jacob, Ollie Muhly and Griffin Straub.

“Those four seniors gave it everything they had. I really liked this group,” Coach Clifford said. “We’ve had more talented teams, but these kids didn’t care who scored. That’s why we were where we were tonight.”

With the contest knotted at 57 with just under two minutes left in the extra four-minute session, the Red Devils (18-8) held the ball for more than a minute before calling a timeout with 37 seconds left. When play resumed, the Belmont Countians misfired and West Muskingum rebounded before calling timeout with 1.8.

The Tornadoes’ David Evans lofted a length-of-the-floor heave that just got over the outstretched arm of St. Clairsville’s 6-7 Griffin Straub and into Morrison’s hands. His shot touched nothing but net as the buzzer sounded, setting off a wild celebration by the partisan West Muskingum crowd while the stunned Red Devils and their following watched in stunned amazement.

Straub, who is headed to NCAA Division II Indiana, Pa., led the Red Devils with a game-best 27 points. He also garnered eight rebounds. Jacob added 11 points and sophomore Luke Schafer collected nine of St. Clairsville’s 24 rebounds.

Morrison paced the Tornadoes with 21 markers. Carter Smith pulled down 11 of his team’s 26 rebounds and added a dozen points.

The Red Devils turned the ball over 11 times, five more than the Tornadoes.

West Muskingum held a 16-15 advantage after one quarter and extended the margin to 28-24 at the half. The score was deadlocked at 36 with a little under two minutes left in the third quarter, and the teams basically traded basket-for-basket down the stretch.

St. Clairsville had a chance to win it at the end of regulation, but Smith blocked a shot in the lane by Straub to force bonus basketball.

Schafer grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a putback to give the Red Devils a 55-53 lead, but Morrison knotted things. Jacob gave his team a 57-55 lead with 2:07 left in overtime but West Muskingum drew even on a hoop by Tavin Bennett and called time with 1:53 showing, setting the stage for the end-of-the-game dramatics.