By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Stumblin’, fumblin’, bumblin’, Colten Leach ran the basketball version of fumblerooski to perfection. Touchdown! Well, make that a clutch two-point conversion at the buzzer. Just like it was drawn up.
Remember the infamous Nebraska touchdown in the 1984 Orange Bowl (anyone younger than 50, search it on YouTube and appreciate a little history)? The ball was intentionally fumbled, a linemen scooped it and scored? It’s no longer legal, by the way. Call this one the Starrooski.
Cutting from out of bounds to take a handoff from teammate Kaedyn Bennett, Leach lost control, regained it and swooped in for a wide-open layup with less than a second left as Bedford North Lawrence slipped past Class A No.5 Loogootee with a 55-53 victory on Tuesday night. Leach scored 17 points as the Stars (13-5) extended their amazing run with their ninth win in the last 10 games.
Some game-winning plays are remembered as poetry in motion, executional excellence. This was not. BNL had the ball out in the sideline, with 4.1 seconds left, and the first half of those last four looked like an unfolding disaster.
Leach snapped the inbound pass to Bennett high on the right wing, then cut in to take the ball back. Loogootee defender Isaac Eagle attempted to disrupt the handoff, collided with Bennett, and the ball dropped to the deck, between Leach’s legs as he stumbled head down to the 3-point line. Then, miraculously, he regained balance as the ball bounced up to his hands at the foul line.
He crashed past Loogootee’s Parker Arvin, eyed the rim, and flew in for an unmolested, left-handed layup as the scoreboard clicked to 0.3, as a pride of stunned Lions looked on in disbelief. Ballgame.
“That’s exactly how we drew it up,” Leach said with a smile. “Kick it off the kid, grab it, be wide open for a layup. I knew Kaedyn got hammered, I got hammered on the cut. The ball just appeared in my hands. They didn’t even know I had the ball, I don’t think.“
Everyone in BNL Fieldhouse knew who was going to get the chance to win it. BNL, taking a page from the Jack Butcher playbook (days of Loogootee past) while spreading the court from the 2:00 mark until burning its last timeout at 4.1, set up for Leach as the first option.
“Exactly how we drew it up, exactly what we were trying to do,” BNL coach Jeff Hein said. “We were trying to get downhill. I wanted to get to the basket. Kaedyn made a nice handoff play, and Leach was able to get downhill, run through the defensive line and get a touchdown.
“That’s what it looked like. The fumble wasn’t the plan.”
The frantic finish was the product of two quality teams locked in a tense duel. The Lions (11-7) set the tone early with Arvin doing major damage in the post (that would be a night-long theme), but the Stars answered with two straight Noah Godlevske treys, with back-to-back 15-footers by Leach, with Kole Bailey’s rebound and coast-to-coast dash for a 31-24 advantage at halftime.
Loogootee’s response was a lot of muscle, with Peyton Bledsoe collecting lobs to the post for two buckets over smaller defenders, with Arvin powering up a baseline shot, with Leighton Jeffers busting a corner 3-pointer for a 37-36 lead at 2:56 of the third. BNL came back with two Colton Staggs hoops and a Jett Jones layup, but another Jeffers splash from the deep corner made it 42-42 heading to the fourth.
Loogootee’s last lead (46-45) came on an Arvin post-up on the baseline. Godlevske and Bennett drilled long 3-pointers for a 51-47 edge, but the Lions growled with a Bledsoe bomb, with Drew Walker’s 3-pointer for a 53-53 deadlock with 2:00 left.
The Stars pulled out and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited some more. Timeout at 23.3 to discuss it. Timeout again at 4.1. The rest is now history.
“I thought we had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen,” Loogootee coach Ryan Haywood said. “I think everyone in the gym probably did, that Leach was going to get it back. We jumped him, made it tough for him to get the ball. It’s a 50-50 play, and it went their way.”
Bledsoe and Arvin were a fantastic interior combination. Bledsoe had 22 points, and Arvin tallied 18 while never missing a shot from the floor. Their high-low posting and passing was almost unguardable with their height advantage.
“We had trouble with that,” Hein said. “They did a good job of isolating Arvin, we had trouble doubling him, because Bledsoe was in a position where we couldn’t double off of him. You have to give them credit, they played really well. That was a good, quality win.”
In addition to Leach, Staggs totaled 13 points while Bennett and Godlevske added 9 each. The Stars lived a lot, and died a little during a second-half slump, from the bonus arc with eight from long range. BNL was guilty of only three turnovers.
“We have to keep shooting the ball,” Hein said. “That’s how we play, we can’t go away from how we play. That’s our defense, we have to knock down shots. We stuck with the plan.”
“They make it tough,” Haywood said. “Those two guards, their quickness and driving ability, shooters that can make you pay – what do you do? For the most part, we did a really good job. I think this 1A school did a pretty good job of hanging in there.”
BNL has now won seven in a row.
“We found a way to win, and that’s what we’ve been doing,” Leach said. “Get it done. That’s all we can ask for. It’s so much fun. We love winning games. We’re still playing great basketball.”
“Our kids battled through a good opponent and could have folded the tents a couple of times,” Hein said. “They just kept playing, believed in what we were doing.”
Before the game, BNL honored Ron Grimes for his 52 years of service as a basketball official. He has announced his retirement following the season.
The Stars will return to action on Friday, hosting Class 2A No.6 Brownstown.
LOOGOOTEE LIONS (53)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
24 Parker Arvin, f 0-0 7-7 4-5 2 2 18
33 Peyton Bledsoe, f 2-4 8-15 4-5 4 1 22
23 Drew Walker, f 1-3 1-4 0-0 7 3 3
10 Isaac Eagle, g 0-2 0-4 1-2 5 1 1
20 Leighton Jeffers, g 2-4 3-5 1-2 2 1 9
3 Camden Haywood 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
21 Isaac Waggner 0-1 0-2 0-0 1 1 0
Totals 5-14 19-37 10-14 22 10 53
BEDFORD NL STARS (55)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
4 Kaedyn Bennett, f 3-6 3-6 0-0 1 4 9
2 Colten Leach, f 0-0 7-10 3-7 6 2 17
22 Colton Staggs, g 1-3 5-8 2-2 1 3 13
1 Trace Rynders, g 0-3 0-3 0-0 0 0 0
11 Noah Godlevske, g 3-5 3-7 0-0 2 1 9
14 Kole Bailey 1-2 2-4 0-0 4 1 5
34 Jett Jones 0-2 1-3 0-0 2 3 2
Totals 8-21 21-40 5-9 16 14 55
Loogootee 15 9 18 11 – 53
Bedford NL 18 13 11 13 – 55
Turnovers – Loogootee 7, BNL 3
Field goal percentage – Loogootee 19-37 (.514); BNL 21-40 (.525)
Free throw percentage – Loogootee 10-14 (.714); BNL 5-9 (.556)
