HIGHLANDS RANCH — The Highlands Ranch boys basketball team suffered through a miserable fourth quarter offensively on Thursday. Yet all it took was one incredibly clutch defensive play to get everything turned around.

Falcons junior Fabian Sebastian blocked a potential game-winning shot at the regulation buzzer, and Highlands Ranch used the momentum to dominate overtime in a 59-50 victory against Bear Creek in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs.

Junior guard Darryl Wright and senior forward Greg Sullivan combined to make 8-of-10 free throws during over time as the Falcons outscored Bear Creek 10-1 in the extra session. Highlands Ranch (11-13) will to play at top-seeded Eaglecrest in a second-round game on Saturday.

“We had some great opportunities but we kept rushing the ball,” Highlands Ranch coach Bob Caton said. “We would make a steal and come home empty-handed. We had to take our time, make the good pass, and get the two points. We were playing good D, but we didn’t convert them.”

No defensive play was bigger than the one made by Sebastian at the end of regulation.

Two free throws by the Falcons’ Anthony Carr tied the game 49-49 with 1 minute, 10 seconds remaining. Bear Creek opted to hold the ball for one shot, but senior Dajuan Mack was charged with an offensive foul with 4.7 seconds remaining.

Bear Creek’s Dorian McPherson managed to steal the inbounds pass, and the Bears had one final shot after calling timeout with two seconds left to play. A sharp inbounds pass gave Mack an opportunity under the basket, but Sebastian swatted the shot away to force overtime.

“That (block) got us a lot of adrenaline and a lot of momentum going into overtime,” said Sullivan, who led the Falcons with 15 points. “That really got us going. Coach Caton told us what a good team effort it was. That’s what won us the game—everyone doing their job.”

Highlands Ranch held a 47-43 lead going into the fourth quarter but was unable to pull away, committing five turnovers and scoring only two points in the final period. But Bear Creek was not much better offensively, scoring only six points in the fourth and going scoreless during the final 4 minutes of regulation.

Marcus Byrd supported Sullivan’s effort by scoring 10 points, all in the first half, and grabbing 11 rebounds. Sebastian recorded eight points and eight rebounds and helped lead the Falcons’ strong defensive effort against Bear Creek’s leading scorer, Preston Rayburn.

Rayburn entered the game averaging almost 17 points but was held to six by Highlands Ranch, who kept Rayburn from scoring a single point after the third quarter. Mack led Bear Creek (11-13) with 12 points.

“One of the main things was we had to stop Rayburn,” Sullivan said. “We had to stop him from getting his points. I think we did pretty well with that. We made defensive stops when we needed to.”

Bear Creek . . . 16 18 9 6 1—50

Highlands Ranch 16 16 15 2 10—59

BC — Dajuan Mack 5 1-1 12, Brian Joy 3 1-2 9, Jaron Price 2 2-4 6, Preston Rayburn 4 0-0 8, Jeremiah Sirles 2 2-5 6, Tommy Flanagan 0 0-0 0, Dorian McPherson 3 0-0 6, Shomari Rodgers 1 1-1 3. Totals 20 7-13 50.

HR — Darryl Wright 2 4-4 9, Brett Olson 0 2-2 2, Fabian Sebastian 4 0-1 8, Marcus Byrd 5 0-0 10, Greg Sullivan 5 5-8 15, Anthony Carr 0 4-4 4, Phil Brown 3 3-4 9, Eric Antilla 0 0-0 0, Mitch Kahl 1 0-0 2. 20 18-23 59.

Three-point goals — BC, Joy 2, Mack; HR, Wright.