Polo, 58, Indian Creek 53: Grifin Buck had all the time in the world.

The Polo senior guard spotted up for a wide-open 3-pointer in the corner in the waning seconds of the Polo Regional championship game. Buck took a pass from a slashing Connor Lincoln and took his time before draining an open 3-pointer with 3.4 seconds left that gave the Marcos a 56-53 win over Indian Creek Friday.

It was the first regional title for the Marcos (27-3) in 23 years.

As the Indian Creek defense concentrated on the paint, Buck slipped to the corner unnoticed, giving him some extra time to collect himself and make a shot that ended the decades-long regional drought.

“Usually I need time to shoot,” Buck said. “I had been rushing my shot and not been hitting them too much. That one felt good, I had time to relax and shoot.”

Indian Creek opened the game with four 3-pointers in the first quarter, but Polo led 22-18 after the first quarter thanks to 10 points from Matt VanOosten.

Indian Creek outscored Polo 15-2 in the second quarter and led by nine points (33-24) at halftime.

Matt Scholl led the Marcos with 17 points. Lincoln and VanOosten followed with 12 and 10 points.

Seth Sanderson and Nathan Peterson scored 12 points each for Indian Creek.

Polo will play Annawan in Wednesday’s River Ridge Sectional semifinals.

“We were the first team to place in the Forreston Tournament since ’91, I think we have the school record for wins, we won a conference title for the first time in 40 years and now we have a regional championship for the first time in 23 years,” Polo coach Matt Messer said.

“This group has just been breaking records or long droughts at Polo since the beginning of the year.”

- Jeremy Anders, GateHouse News Service