By Mike McGraw
Executive Director
CONNERSVILLE – Winchester hit seven of its first eight shots and, midway through the first quarter of the fourth-ranked Golden Falcons’ Class 2A Regional 11 title tilt with No. 5 Lawrenceburg March 14, they were ahead 20-3.
It was a patented Falcon blitz, the type they have used for years to break the back and spirit of opponents. On this night, however, a funny thing happened on the way to the coronation: Lawrenceburg took the punch, got up off the mat, and proceeded to throw more than a few haymakers of its own.
The Tigers were eventually subdued 79-72 in overtime, but in the end they fell to a far more dangerous foe than Winchester. They were slaved by sheer fatigue.
It didn’t take long for Winchester (21-3) to find out it had a different type of Tiger by the tail. By the end of the first stanza, Lawrenceburg (21-4) had closed that 17-point gap to a dozen at 29-17. It was just a foreshadowing of what was to come.
Winchester stabilized matters for the first couple of minutes in the second quarter, leading 32-19 with just over six minutes left in the half. Then the Golden Falcons’ Neal Beshears picked up his second foul and headed for the bench.
It started a chain reaction of events nobody saw coming.
Lawrenceburg immediately went on a 9-0 run to close within four points at 32-28. Winchester hit a free throw, but it only served to slow the inevitable as the Tigers launched another 9-0 assault, suddenly claiming a 37-33 lead late in the half. They kept the four-point cushion, 39-35, heading into intermission.
The Tigers had responded to Winchester’s opening salvo with a 36-16 shellacking of the defending regional champion and two-time 2A state runner-up in over just 12 minutes.
Several things had gone wrong for Winchester during the siege. The normally unflappable Falcons had lost their composure against Lawrenceburg’s frenzied pressure defense. Their normally pinpoint passing had been anything but that during the second period. And after a hot start, likely Indiana All-Star Tyler Koch had gone stone-cold from the field.
Still, they had reached halftime with little damage having been done, and most in the huge Winchester throng thought things would quickly turn around when the teams returned to the floor. Yet few were prepared for what was about to happen.
Lawrenceburg simply took up where it had left off. The Tigers started the third quarter on a 14-5 run that quickly had the Golden Falcons staring at a 13-point hole, 53-40. But Winchester responded like the champion it is.
Coach Chip Mahaffey switched the Golden Falcons to a 1-3-1 half-court trapping defense, and it immediately paid dividends as they slowed the Lawrenceburg penetration into the lane that had been ******* them for over two quarters. Climbing back into the game, Winchester outscored Lawrenceburg 7-2 in the final minutes of the third stanza to close within 55-47 heading to the fourth period.
Two factors led to a nail-biting fourth quarter. First, great players come up big in big situations, and that is exactly what Koch did. Secondly, the Tigers began paying the price for the incredible effort they had given in getting back into the game and building the lead.
The signs of fatigue began early in the quarter when Lawrenceburg’s shots quit falling nearly as often. And on the defensive end, the stifling pressure the Tigers had used to gain control did not have nearly as much steam.
Winchester quickly closed the gap to three at 59-56. From that point forward, points became extremely hard to come by. Lawrenceburg, for its tiring part, could not buy a bucket, while Winchester began relying almost exclusively on Koch. Yet Lawrenceburg was not about to let him be the instrument of destruction.
With the score 59-58, the two teams made four trips to each end without changing the scoreboard. Lawrenceburg momentarily took the lead back to three at 61-58 but Winchester responded.
The final minutes were, in all honesty, dictated by a season-long Achilles heel of the Tigers. They could not hit the free throws that would have put the game away.
Winchester still trailed 61-60 as the clock ticked below 20 seconds. An unlikely hero then emerged. With everybody in the storied Spartan Bowl waiting for Koch to make one last bid for the lead, the Golden Falcons reversed the ball to the left wing and into the hands of senior Levi Cross.
Cross drove to the bucket like he had been shot from a gun. He not only scored the go-ahead basket, but he was also fouled at the hoop. He calmly sank the charity toss, giving Winchester a 63-61 lead with eight seconds remaining.
Lawrenceburg called a timeout, then did what they had done for so much of the evening: The Tigers streaked down court and stuffed the ball right down the Golden Falcons’ throats. The final surge was good, and overtime was at hand.
With visions of Thursday night’s six-overtime marathon between Syracuse and Connecticut dancing through everyone’s head, it was not difficult to see that Lawrenceburg was going to face a nearly impossible task in the extra period. That’s because the Tigers had not hit a jump shot in over six minutes and were visibly dragging.
The overtime was a simple case of a great team doing what it needed to do. Beshears hit a 3-pointer to open the session, and the Golden Falcons never looked back. Lawrenceburg closed within one on two occasions at 66-65 and 71-70, but Koch took care of matters with six free throws down the stretch to seal the verdict.
The victory sends Winchester into a Southport Semistate date with unheralded Brownstown (19-6), a 55-47 upset winner over No. 9 Forest Park for the Regional 12 crown at Southridge.
On the other side, the loss ends the careers of several Tiger seniors who have been standouts in three sports for the past four seasons.
Semifinal 1: 2A #4 Winchester 81, Centerville 48
TO COME!!
Semifinal 2: 2A #5 Lawrenceburg 65, Indianapolis Ritter 58
TO COME!!
11. Connersville Regional
Game 1: Winchester 81, Centerville 48
Game 2: Lawrenceburg 65, Indianapolis Ritter 58
Championship: Winchester 79, Lawrenceburg 72 (OT)
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