All over the state, all over the country, all over YouTube, buzzers will sound, and pandemonium will ensue. There’s not much better — or worse, if you’re on the wrong end — than a good buzzer-beater in basketball.
Tournament time magnifies the shots, but they happen all season.
Jan. 16: Houghton College stuns the Cedarville University men's team 78-76 with a 50-foot Hail Mary at the final buzzer.
Jan. 27: Up by three with two seconds remaining, the Urbana University women lose when Ohio Dominican's Tenia Scarver hits a 35-foot shot as time expires and is fouled. She sinks the free throw to win the game 55-54.
March 3: Denzel Lassiter's 3-pointer with two seconds left gives Springfield a 61-60 victory over Lebanon in the Division I sectional semifinals.
Teams beaten at the buzzer have no time to ponder their demise. That doesn’t make it easier.
A year ago, one of the best area boys basketball teams of the past 10 years, Brook Cupps’ Graham team, walked off the court in a daze after a 3-pointer by Columbus Bishop Watterson stunned it in the round of 16.
Cupps, whose team plays in its third straight district final tonight, March 10, has never revisited the buzzer-beating 3-pointer that killed his Falcons in the D-II regional semifinals a season ago. He saw the shot rip through the net. He has never watched the film.
“I watched it (live) once,” the Graham High School boys basketball coach said. “I don’t want to watch it again.”
The cobwebs will grow over that memory, even if the pain will linger. There’s not a coach in the area who doesn’t feel that pain.
Four years ago, the best area college men’s basketball team in decades suffered the same fate as Cupps’ Falcons. Wittenberg lost 59-56 in the NCAA Division III championship game when Virginia Wesleyan’s Ton Ton Balenga hit a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left.
“I’m sure I’ve watched it since then,” Wittenberg coach Bill Brown said. “I can’t tell you I’ve watched it more than one time.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or djablonski@coxohio.com.
About the Author
