Ben Graunke was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment after sinking the championship-winning shot in overtime for the William D. Cuts Crusaders.
"My heart skipped a beat. It was pretty incredible," an awestruck Graunke told the Gazette after burying the Sir George Simpson Voyageurs with a desperation basket with eight ticks left in the extra period to put Cuts ahead to stay at 58-56 in Friday's SAPEC basketball final.
In the last minute of OT, buckets by Lucas Tziklas and Kyle Letts pulled Simpson even with Cuts at 56-all. After Letts' jumper from the corner tied it with 27 seconds remaining, the Crusaders marched down the floor to set up the game-clinching bucket by the red-hot Graunke, the team's most prolific scorer with 26 points. As fans stood at attention as the drama unfolded, the Grade 9 guard bolted through traffic before flipping the ball through the hoop with an acrobatic layup.
"I was actually just trying to get a foul on the play," said Graunke, who ripped his jersey off in a burst of bravado while engulfed by Cuts' supporters in the post-game mob scene. "After I released it I knew it was going in."
The explosive go-ahead score shook the foundations of a jam-packed St. Albert Catholic High School gym.
"Ben Graunke scored some big points for us tonight but that was the biggest," gushed teammate Mawuko Golokuma.
Graunke, 15, willed the Crusaders back into contention with 16 points in the second half and six more in OT. He accounted for nine of the team's 12 points in the fourth quarter.
"Our coach [Deb Rivet] said they can't stop us driving. Our outside shots weren't dropping but we were getting inside and getting the points," said Graunke, a polished baller who only started playing hoops last season.
The hardnosed bantam football player with the St. Albert Fury was whistled for his fourth foul in the middle of the third quarter but refused to ramp down his aggressive game.
"I was a little bit worried but I just kept my cool that I could finish the game," he said.
Graunke's fearless attacking style gave Simpson fits.
"When he started driving on us every time, he kept getting points and they got up on us. That's probably where most of their points came from," said Letts, who was no slouch offensively with an impressive game-high 33 points.
After the clutch OT shot by Graunke, the rattled-looking Voyageurs, winners of the last two SAPEC finals, ran one last desperate play for points.
"Lucas set the screen for me and I'm supposed to shoot the three but it was an air ball and that was game," said Letts, who scored 19 of his team's 32 points after halftime.
When the horn sounded, fans swarmed the Cuts' bench while the Voyageurs watched in disbelief
"Definitely, it's devastating. It's just a brutal loss, even if it is only by two points," Letts said.
Too close to call
Simpson led 14-13 after the first quarter and 24-19 at halftime.
"We had a great start and then we lost it a little bit in the second quarter but we came back and kept it together," Golokuma said.
The one-two punch of Letts and Tziklas racked up all the points for Simpson in the first half. Letts, a superb Grade 9 guard, netted 14 points. The tall and silky-smooth Tziklas added 10 en route to 20 overall.
The only other Voyageurs to tack up points in the loss were Theo Tahririha, who salted away a rebound off a shot by Letts to make it 45-41 Simpson with 3:07 left in the second half, and Scott Marples with an offensive rebound in OT to put the Voyageurs up 50-48.
"Those two guys [Letts and Tziklas] were good. They were shooting some real nice midrange shots over us," said Golokuma, 15.
Cuts started the third quarter with five points in a row to tie it at 45. After the lead switched hands several times, a pair of free throws by Tyler Boychuk left the Crusaders trailing 35-34 at quarter time.
"We came out strong in the first half but then we let them back in it," said Letts, who pumped in three out of four free throws in the last 20 seconds of the third quarter to give Simpson a brief three-point cushion. "They definitely played a harder game. They hustled a lot."
Simpson maintained its lead in the fourth quarter but never by more than four points. Cuts kept chipping away at the deficit and with 34 seconds to go, Graunke's layup made it 45-all.
"We really turned it on after the third quarter," Graunke said. "We came up huge in the rebounds. We had some really good defensive rebounds that were just good efforts."
With 17.4 on the clock, and Tziklas at the line, he missed the first free throw but the second shot was perfect to break the deadlock.
Game tying shot
After a timeout by Cuts, they inbounded the ball at midcourt and Golokuma was tripped up while working the ball around the horn. With 9.1 showing on the scoreboard, the outcome of the final was in his hands shooting two from the line. He drained the first attempt for his eighth point of the night as the pro-Cuts crowd roared in approval.
"It was like a dream. I couldn't believe it," said the Grade 9 guard. "We were down and we needed a shot but I wasn't thinking about it. I just followed through and it went in."
With the ball spinning in the air, Graunke knew it was good as gold.
"That basket was made to go in. It was huge," he declared.
The second shot missed the mark, ignited a free-for-all of frantic action to close out the second half.
"To go into overtime in the city finals like that, I still can't get that through my head," Letts said.
The teams traded baskets in OT until Boychuk's off-balanced offensive rebound and Jesse Perry's shot from the top of the key, combined with four missed free throws by Simpson, left Cuts clinging to a 56-52 lead with 72 seconds remaining, setting the stage for a spine-tingling finish.
"Going into overtime made it a better game," Graunke said. "This is how you want to win a basketball game. You just don't want to kill someone. There were downs and then ups. It was the perfect game."
Boychuk had 14 points in the victory as Cuts celebrated their first SAPEC championship since 2005.
"It's nice to win it against a big school," Graunke said. "They were a very good team. I didn't expect to be behind at all in the game."
In league play Cuts tied the Lorne Akins Gators and Richard S. Fowler Falcons for first place at 6-1. Simpson was fourth at 4-3.
"When we beat the first place team [Fowler] in the semifinals, we were just ecstatic. It was crazy," said Letts, 14. "We improved a ton since the start of the season. We definitely hustled a lot and that's why we were able to go the final."
