Double OT thriller ends with miracle finish. 'Best high school game I’ve ever been a part of.'

With three seconds left on the clock and trailing by one, Guerin Catholic’s season looked over as an errant inbounds pass was heading out of bounds. Brebeuf Jesuit guard Javawn Brooks had just given the Braves a one-point lead — their first lead of the game — with 30 seconds left in double overtime of Saturday's Class 3A sectional final. 

“It was like a ‘Oh crap’ moment,”  Guerin senior forward Dylan Murans said. “I thought that was going out and it was going straight to the other team and we lost the game.”

'Hard to believe that was me.'He hadn't played all game. Then made a play we won't forget.

But Ben Grissom was on high alert. The senior guard chased down the ball and did the unthinkable. Surrounded by two Brebeuf defenders and with his toes just centimeters from the out-of-bounds line, he desperately launched the ball over his head and back to the rim. 

“I just knew I had to get a rebound,” Grissom said. “I wasn’t sure how much time was on the clock. I threw it up over my head at the basket hoping for the best.”

Ironically, “the best” was Malcolm Houze, who threw the errant pass in the first place. Houze was waiting under the rim, unguarded and unaccounted for. He caught the ball and scored at the buzzer, giving Guerin Catholic a 75-74 victory and a sectional championship.

“It was a situation where we are trying to get the ball inside to (Murans), trying to make a play,” Guerin Catholic coach Bobby Allen said. “Obviously, it didn’t work out, (but) we talked about composure.  We talked how the game would never be over until that buzzer went off, and we needed every single second of it tonight. I am proud of the effort from our seniors.”

The Eagles were in control and appeared to be in the driver’s seat deep into the fourth quarter. Murans’ dunk with four-and-a-half minutes left gave Guerin a 12-point lead and brought the decibels inside the home gym to new highs. 

But the top-ranked Braves didn’t quit.

“We were dead in the water, dead in the water, for a long time.” Brebeuf coach Allen Glunt said. “For them to not fragment, not quit, not feel like they were out of it and continue to rely on one another… We got guys fouling out, we got guys with different minutes, we got groups that have never been on the floor together. And with every single thing is do or die, just makes me so proud. It helps me. It helps me know we’re doing stuff the right way.”

After Murans’ dunk, Brebeuf guard Evan Haywood roared to life, scoring back-to-back 3s and cutting the lead in half.  With Guerin Catholic’s leading scorer — Robert Sorensen — fouled out, the Eagles struggled to respond.  Brebeuf guard Reis Butcher was on the foul line with nine seconds remaining, needing two to tie the score.  His first shot was a swish; his second one bounced out.

Guerin Catholic went the length of the floor in three seconds, scoring a quick basket from Bryson Cardinal, which extended the lead to three points.  But the Braves responded just as quickly: Haywood drained a 3-pointer with two seconds left to send the game to overtime.

“To even be in a situation where that type of thing occurs to me speaks to this group’s resilience,” Glunt said.  “This group just understands that, when desperation sits in, (their response) has been tremendous.”

Desperation was setting in once again as the Braves faced a three-point deficit with less than 10 seconds left in the first overtime period.  Haywood, a Butler commit, again drained a heavily-contested 3-pointer, sending it to a second overtime and its dramatic conclusion.

“That was the best high school game I’ve ever been a part of,” Allen said. “Both teams were absolutely incredible.”

Glunt was very emotional after the game.  Sitting on a training table just outside the locker room, the exhausted coach couldn’t hide the tears while praising his team’s gritty, never-give-up performance.

“It isn’t about me, it isn’t about the coaches, I can’t save them with timeouts or save them with Xs and Os,” he said.  “Like, we want them to learn to persevere in tough moments because of one another. That’s what we want.”

“They’re just competitors,” he added. “They’re great people. I love them, I love them, I love them.”