Midwest City boys finally add another gold ball after holding on to claim 5A title
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA - Coach Torey Noel didn’t believe it.
When he was told the last time Midwest City had won a boys' basketball title was nearly two decades ago, the first-year coach seemed stunned.
To Noel’s defense, he had just guided the Bombers to a 69-66 victory over Booker T. Washington to win the Class 5A boys state championship Saturday, and by his own account, he was still feeling the euphoria.
“That's crazy,” Noel said in almost disbelief. “It's crazy. I've been in two of them and the last time we were there, I was actually playing. So for me to be coaching now and to get one is an unbelievable feeling.”
The Bombers can now lay claim to five state titles, with the previous one coming in 2007. That was before main players on this year’s squad were even born.
Despite that, junior Jarvis Nash knows the significance of bringing the gold ball back one year after fellow Mid-Del school district program Del City won the same title.
“It's the first one in 17 years,” Nash said. “We've been talking about this since my freshman year. We talked about coming here.
"It's crazy. We actually did it. It's crazy.”
However, for much of the game, it appeared Tulsa Washington was going to be carrying the hardware back up the highway. They led by 13 points in the first quarter before the Bombers were able to claw their way back and make a game of it.
“It took grit and just accept the challenge,” Carl’Sheon Young said. “Just because we're down, that doesn't mean that there's not a lot of basketball left.”
Young was correct as the game was tied at 61-all with just three minutes left in the game. Nash then picked up a steal and layup to put the Bombers up by two.
The Hornets' Barron Harris was fouled by Roy Henderson while completing a layup. The ensuing free throw put BTW up, 65-64.
However, Henderson answered with his own bucket to retake the lead for MWC with just 1:20 left in the game.
Henderson then scored after the Bombers forced a turnover. Isaac Sanders responded by getting a steal and score to put the Hornets in front, 66-65.
With 20 seconds left, Young was fouled and knocked down a pair of free throws. The Hornets came up empty on the next possession and Henderson was fouled with five seconds left. The senior calmly hit both free-throw attempts and put the contest away,
“Man, I told them to just to go out there and have fun and play hard,” Noel said. “And if you're nervous, go do something positive for the team to get those jitters out. And I think they did that.”
Mason Matulis paced the Hornets with 16 points while Harris and Sanders scored 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Young led all scorers with 22 points. Henderson added 16 points and five rebounds. Nash finished with 10 points, four steals, two blocked shots and a feeling of a job well done.
“Mission is complete,” an exhausted Nash said. “We're done. We're done. We did it.”
-- Michael Kinney | @SBLiveOK
