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By
Kevin Devaney Jr.
The Journal News • March 16, 2008
GLENS FALLS - Three shots at the
basket in the final eight seconds. None was farther than four feet away.
It was more than Mount Vernon could
have asked for in its final possession of yesterday's Class AA state
semifinal. Yet the sight of none of the shots falling and Bishop
Maginn's bench storming the court will forever be the lasting memory of
this year's Mount Vernon team.
In some ways, it was a fitting
conclusion to a miserable fourth quarter for the Knights. Section 2's
Maginn forced eight turnovers and rallied from seven points down to pull
off a shocking 54-52 victory at the Glens Falls Civic Center, ending
Mount Vernon's two-year reign as state champion.
"I was confident right to the end that
we'd come through in the end. And we almost did," Knights coach Bob
Cimmino said. "We fought a tremendous fight right until the end. It's a
terrible defeat that will linger for a long time. A few years. Maybe
more than a few years."
The last sequence capped a
heart-stopping final four minutes.
Mount Vernon (23-4) got a quality
defensive stop with 18 seconds to play and pushed the ball up the court.
Jordan Lessane lost control of the ball in the paint, but a jump-ball
call allowed the Knights to keep possession with 8.3 seconds left.
Off the inbounds, Ketema Brooks looked
inside to Kevin Jones, but he was being double-teamed. Brooks lobbed it
to the top of the key to Vaughn Allen, whose driving layup rolled off
the rim.
Sherrod Wright got the rebound but was
blocked by Maginn's Shimeek Johnson. Jones got the rebound but his
desperation shot through traffic bounced off the rim at the buzzer.
"It looked like a good shot to me,"
said Jones, a 6-foot-7 senior. "I actually thought I got fouled but I
guess it wasn't enough for the refs to call. ... I was like 'Wow, my
high school career is over.' "
Jones, who'll play next season at West
Virginia, sat on the court for a few moments in disbelief. Even when the
team boarded the bus 40 minutes after the game, there was still an air
of shock.
Deep down, the Knights knew they had
this game won.
"We had a lot of key turnovers that
led to too many easy baskets," Jones said. "Maginn is a great defensive
team. But it's hard because we haven't lost a game because of turnovers
like this all season."
Maginn, which lost to the Knights in
last year's state final, forced countless fourth-quarter mistakes.
Still, Mount Vernon led 48-41 with just under six minutes to play and
seemed on its way to the final for the sixth time in eight seasons.
Johnson, a 6-7 forward, responded with
a 3-pointer for Maginn on the ensuing possession. There was still 5:38
to go and Mount Vernon was up by four. But the momentum was shifting.
Taran Buie, their star 6-2 sophomore,
scored the next four points to tie the score at 48-48. Mount Vernon,
which had five turnovers on six possessions at one point in the fourth,
lost the lead when Buie drained a fadeaway jumper with 2:18 left. He
scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half.
Jones, who had 17 points and nine
rebounds, tied it with a jumper. After Allen missed the front end of a
1-and-1 chance, Johnson made a driving layup to put Maginn ahead.
The Knights committed another turnover
when Terron Victoria made an incredible steal, passing the ball as he
fell out of bounds to Khaliq Gross for a fast-break layup with 1:18
left. Allen's layup with 54 seconds to go and the ensuing defensive stop
gave the Knights one final shot but they couldn't take advantage.
"It's tough trailing and playing from
behind," Bishop Maginn coach Richard Hurley said. "I said before the
game, we were going to have to stay within striking distance because
they have phenomenal players."
The loss, however bitter, reminded
Cimmino of how fortunate the program has been.
"This is how you know how good
victories are," Cimmino said. "The only way you can judge victories is
to feel like this sometime." |
