By Mike McGraw
Executive Director
INDIANAPOLIS – There is no part of the last 30 seconds in unranked Brownsburg’s Class 4A state championship battle March 22 against No. 8 Marion at Conseco Fieldhouse that will not be relived or debated, revered or lamented, for as long as they play the game in Indiana.
Despite a final score of just 40-39 in Brownsburg’s favor, the double-fairy tale ending will assure that. (Click here to see the end-game excitement from our Eric Eaton!)
“It was like a heavyweight fight – every shot was contested, every rebound there was a fight for it,” said Brownsburg coach Joshua Kendrick.
It is a strange mixture of circumstances that combine to create a sports hero. Just ask Marion junior Scott Wood and Brownsburg senior Gordon Hayward. In the end, it was the 6’9” Hayward’s off-balance three foot layin that danced tantalizingly on the rim as the horn sounded and then dropped through that will link his name forever with the likes of Scott Skiles, Damon Bailey, and Luke Zeller.
Those circumstances began long before the frenetic final seconds that I will try to describe in a moment. For the first 31-and-a-half minutes, this game was dominated by four themes that centered, for the most part, on what the two teams did not do rather than what they did.
The first of those themes came in the opening period: Marion’s inability to put a quick end to the contest when the Giants had the chance.
Brownsburg suffered through a nightmarish shooting performance in the first eight minutes, when the Bulldogs hit just two of their 13 shots and were 0 of 6 from behind the 3-point line. They toed the charity stripe only twice and missed one of those. Yet despite all of that, Brownsburg trailed only 9-5 at the end of the stanza.
After charging to a 7-2 lead, Marion scored only two points in the last half of the quarter. It was a missed opportunity that would come back to haunt the Giants.
The second theme? Brownsburg’s dominance in the paint throughout the game.
The Bulldogs didn’t score a great amount of points in the post, but they did accomplish two things that went a long way toward setting up the surreal finish. Their interior defense totally eliminated any inside game on the part of the Giants, and their offensive rebounding kept them in the game despite frigid shooting.
For the evening, Brownsburg hit only 13 of 43 shots (30 percent). The Bulldogs, however, had 16 offensive rebounds compared with only three for Marion. The result was that although the seven-time state champion Giants shot a higher percentage, Marion attempted only 30 shots in the entire game.
That eye-opening paint dominance offset the difference in marksmanship.
“It was a super job by us defensively,” said Marion coach Joe Luce. “Offensively, we had trouble getting going. At halftime, we just wanted to get the ball more to Julius (Mays) and Scott Wood.”
The third factor that helped set up the conclusion was Brownsburg’s inability to cash in from the charity stripe. The Bulldogs connected on only 50 percent of their chances (9 of 18). Yet Marion fared only slightly better at 64 percent, shooting four fewer free throws in also making nine.
The final theme – and the most ironic – was the struggles of Hayward and Wood. These two high-powered scorers (Hayward 18.1 ppg, Wood 16.2) suffered through nights both would like to forget, at least until the final seconds. Wood had just one point the entire night entering the last minute. Hayward was scoreless in the first half and did not connect on a jumper during the game.
Suffice it to say, they were perhaps the least-likely people to be at the center of the game-ending dramatics. The likely candidates for those honors would have been the Brownsburg senior Julian Mavunga and Marion’s 6’2” Mays.
The 6’8” Mavunga had 17 points in the game, 12 of them coming in the first half and serving as the only reason Brownsburg was still in the game down by only three at 19-16. Mays ended with 21 points for the Giants, 13 of those in the second half when the North Carolina State-bound senior was the only effective weapon Marion could muster.
All of these things combined for a less-than-memorable game that found Brownsburg leading 37-36 with just over 30 seconds to play and junior point J.D. Cosby heading to the stripe for a one-and-one. Cosby hit the first of the free tosses to make it 38-36, but he missed the second.
From there to the end of the game, it was a case of reality being stranger than any fiction that could be written.
Marion coach Joe Luce decided to play for the final shot. If the Giants had missed, he would have been second-guessed for years. But they didn’t.
Mays controlled the ball until just under the 10-second mark, then made his move. It was a classic “either-or” play. He went left off a high screen and looked to turn the corner and drive the lane. If that wasn’t open – and it wasn’t – the play was designed to make the defense collapse and open up a pitch to the left wing for a jump shot.
Mays unselfishly made the pitch to an open … Wood. Wood proceeded to bury the 3-pointer, his only connection of the contest in eight attempts from the field. Click here to watch the shot!
That set off a wild celebration that was cut short by a Brownsburg timeout called just before the horn. When the squads headed for the sideline, the clock showed one second to play. After conferring, the officials reset the game clock to 2.1 seconds, a decision that will not be highly questioned by the Marion faithful.
The decision that will be, however, was to give Brownsburg the ball on the sideline instead of the baseline. The ruling was obviously that the Bulldogs had inbounded the ball before the timeout was granted, and it would be an understatement to say that Marion fans disagreed with the call.
Nonetheless, Brownsburg had one final opportunity, beginning roughly 60 feet from the basket. Those in attendance began to wonder if that play would ever take place.
When the Bulldogs came out of the break and set up for the inbound, Luce took one look and called a timeout to adjust his defense. Again the two teams took to the floor, and now Brownsburg coach Joshua Kendrick called a second break to realign his troops. They came out again, and they headed back to the huddle again. Luce then spent his final timeout to once again adjust his defense.
Luckily, both teams were out of timeouts at that point or there is no telling how long that chess match might have continued.
Brownsburg’s play was directed to Mavunga, who had set up just outside the left block at the offensive end. But the long pass never made it to the big man as 6’4″ Marion senior Jay Edwards Jr. leaped in front of Mavunga and stole the ball, setting off a second joyful blast from the Giant faithful.
“Someone said you gotta believe, and that’s what happened,” Kendrick said.
The shouts suddenly turned to groans of disbelief. Mavunga swiped down at the ball and knocked it loose from the grasp of Edwards, who had jumped a millisecond too soon and could not forcefully control the steal. The ball bounced into the lane area, where a speeding Hayward gained just enough control of it to push it toward the rim.
It bounced on the iron three times as the horn blared, then settled into the net like a kitten into a pillow. The huge Brownsburg contingent burst into delirious cheers, while the Marion cheers turned to stunned silence. Click here to listen to Hayward describe his game-winner!
“Great job by Brownsburg on that last shot,” Luce said. “We just wanted a stop at the end. I thought we had the ball in our hand, but they made a great play.
“It was a heck of a finish … it’s just the way it goes.”
All that happened will be hashed and re-hashed for years to come. However, as they filed out, everyone instantly knew they had witnessed what may be the most dramatic ending ever in a tournament full of dramatic endings.
Hayward finished with 10 points, all in the second half. Nobody will remember any of them except the final two. Mavunga added a game-high 14 rebounds to go with his 17 points.
“These kids have not been rated in the polls all year,” Kendrick said. “I think these kids have huge heart, and you have to rate that.
“We have a great community – they support these young men for what these young men stand for: integrity. We’re just blessed to have that small-town community where everyone is cheering for us.”
Lost in the ultimate outcome is one of the gutsiest shots ever hit in a title game, Wood’s trey that was his only basket of the night.
“That’s what he is, a great player and a big-time shooter,” Luce said.
Long live Indiana high school basketball! It is still the greatest prep sporting tradition in America.
Brownsburg’s Hayward named Trester Award winner
Following the game, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee named Gordon Hayward of Brownsburg as the winner of the Arthur L. Trester Mental Attitude Award, named in honor of Arthur L. Trester, the IHSAA’s first commissioner who served the Association from 1929-44.
The award is presented annually to a senior participant in each classification who was nominated by his principal and coach and has demonstrated excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership, and athletic ability. Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate partner, will present a $1,000 scholarship to Brownsburg in Hayward’s name.
Hayward is ranked 11th in his class of 472 and carries a 4.2 GPA. He will attend Butler University in the fall and will study computer engineering and physics.
Hayward is a member of the National Honor Society, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and is a Brownsburg Athletic Ambassador. The son of Gordon and Jody Hayward of Brownsburg also serves as a National Honor Society tutor and volunteers for Lighthouse Mission Food Distribution.
In addition to his accomplishments on the hardwood, Hayward has played varsity tennis for four years at Brownsburg and was named to the All-State Singles Team in both 2006 and 2007.
“Gordon indeed has been blessed, but he has also worked very hard to get to this point in his career,” said Bret Daghe, Brownsburg’s principal. “His work ethic serves as a fine example, not just for students, but for all of us to emulate.”
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