NAPPANEE — With a 25-foot Columbia City 3-pointer right before the regulation horn to tie it, then a Columbia City bucket at the overtime horn to win it, just how gut-punchingly, heart-stabbingly painful did Tippecanoe Valley’s 45-43 loss to the Eagles in Saturday night’s Class 3A NorthWood Sectional basketball championship feel?
Joe Luce, a man leathered by 23 years and 558 games as a head coach now, called it “the second-hardest loss I’ve ever been a part of” — and that’s from a guy whose measuring stick for these things stretches beyond what most can imagine.
More important to Luce right after the defeat, however, was that his players find a way to handle it better, even if they are still teenagers, than he handled his own standard-setter 17 years ago.
That controversial loss came in the 2008 4A state title game when Gordon Hayward, who went on to star at Butler University and in the NBA, put in an off-balance shot in the lane as time expired in Brownsburg’s 40-39 win over Luce’s Marion Giants.
“There’s a documentary on it,” Luce said. “We hit a shot with 2.1 (seconds left) to go up. Then they put time back on the clock and the ball was moved to the sideline instead of underneath. There were questionable decisions there. The ball was thrown long, tipped, (bounced on the floor), and with no time, Gordon Hayward hits it.”
With stark candor, Luce didn’t hold back Saturday on how much that 2008 game affected him — and how much it shouldn’t have.
“I walked out of there, and I’ve already said this to my team tonight, a different person than I entered that gym,” Luce said. “It changed my life in the most negative way possible. I left my job at Marion (a year later) because of that. I made some questionable life decisions, became less of a family person than I should’ve been … because I dwelled on that.”
Luce says the eventual making of that documentary several years ago is one of the things that helped spin him back in the right direction.
“It became a win in my life, and in my players’ life, so tonight is the same thing,” Luce said. “It’s the second-hardest loss I’ve ever been a part of, (but) I told the guys when we huddled afterwards, ‘This can’t be a life-changing negative thing for you. It’s gotta be positive. There’s more important things in this world than the game of basketball. There’s family, there’s the kids you’ll have, the wife you’ll have, and you have to understand the holidays you spend with your family and things you’re gonna do are more important than this.’
“I learned a hard lesson that changed my entire life.”
Luce’s fervent hope for his players Saturday was that they process their lesson in a better, speedier manner triggered by perspective.
“It’s a successful year,” Luce said of the Vikings finishing 20-6 for the program’s most wins in 12 seasons and best percentage in 11. “This game will linger for a lifetime, (but) they should walk out of here with nothing but pride.”
Valley led 27-17 at halftime and 37-31 with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, but was plagued by a staggering turnover differential during the second half — the Vikings committed 10 after the break to Columbia City’s one.
The Eagles (17-9) closed to 37-35 on a pair of baskets, at 0:51 and 0:23, each set up by offensive rebounds.
Junior Davis Cowan then stretched Valley’s lead to 38-35 with a 1-of-2 trip to the line.
After a CC timeout at 3.9 showing, a curling Owen Marshall took a side inbound from fellow junior Trey Deckman and swished a 25-footer to force the OT at 38-all.
At 43-43 in overtime and 1.1 seconds left, it was Deckman inbounding again, this time from his team’s offensive baseline, but well wide of center.
His lob found 5-11 senior guard Stratton Fuller, who managed to leap high for the ball and in the same motion put it in the basket as time expired.
“Those two plays were great by them,” Luce said of the Fuller and Marshall tallies, “and we didn’t defend as we should have on either, but those were not the winning and losing plays. They’ll be the ones that are remembered, but in the fourth quarter when we turn it over up six, that’s huge. … Ultimately, Columbia City turned (its defense) up and we didn’t take care of (the ball).”
Fuller scored a game-high 18 points for the Eagles. Junior Landon Richmond added 13 points and three of the eight steals CC racked up to just one by the Vikings.
Marshall scored nine points, while Deckman had game highs of five assists and three blocked shots.
“We had to ramp up the pressure,” third-year Eagle coach Matt Schauss said of his team’s second-half approach. “They have a couple guys that don’t want to be super aggressive offensively, so we kind of sagged off them, but increased the pressure (elsewhere). I challenged our guys at the half to be super aggressive at (both ends), get to the rim, find ways to get guys open.”
Schauss, in his fifth year overall, earned his first sectional title, as well as CC’s first since 2016. The Eagles won for the seventh time in their last eight games — all seven away from home.
“We fought five months to be able to play our best basketball at this point, and we’ve done that,” Schauss said. “We beat a really good team tonight, probably the most physical team we’ve played.”
For the Vikings, senior Ian Cooksey and junior Stephen Akase scored 13 points each, with Akase adding a game-high seven rebounds.
Cooksey tallied all five of Valley’s OT points, including a left-wing triple that drew the Vikings even at 43-43 with 28 seconds left, before the Eagles bled all of the game’s remaining time for Fuller’s winner.
Blaine Sheetz scored nine points for TV and fellow senior DeOndre Hamilton seven to go with a team-high three assists.
Each team shot well from the field with the Vikings at 17-of-30 for 57% with three treys and CC 19-of-35 for 54% with three. The Eagles made 4-of-6 at the line and Valley 6-of-10. The winners had eight turnovers — none in the fourth quarter or OT — to the Vikings’ 12. Valley won the glass 18-13.
Of the Vikings’ six losses this season, five came against teams that reigned as sectional champs Saturday, four of those clubs now 21-5 or better.
Further, TV’s victims included seven opponents that have gone on to win at least 15 games each.
Awaiting CC next Saturday is 3A No. 2-ranked South Bend St. Joseph (23-3) in regional play at South Bend Washington.