MISSION VIEJO, CA – If were wondering how many times the outcome of a basketball game can hang in the final 3.5 seconds of regulation, you’ve now a pretty good clue – assuming you were among those in the Capistrano Valley High gymnasium Wednesday night.
Eventually, the host Cougars prevailed over Tesoro, 62-60, with the aid of a four-minute overtime in the South Coast league boys’ opener.
Seniors Efe Gucoglu (a second-year exchange student from Turkey) and Jackson Gray – who, with his brother, Blake, was once enrolled at Tesoro – scored 22 and 21 points, respectively, as Coach Brian Mulligan’s team improved its overall record to 13-4.
And another senior, 6-foot-3 Carson Brown, continued to post compelling evidence that there is no player in Orange County more important to the success of his team while scoring 30 points and grabbing nine rebounds despite being zeroed in by the Cougars’ defense soon after he and his teammates’ bus left their campus in Rancho Santa Margarita and crossed into Mission Viejo city limits.
In the OT, Gucoglu (pictured) ripped a dribbler and converted the layup, while being fouled, with 47.9 seconds to go. His free throw, which followed his first bucket since early in the third quarter, put his team ahead to stay, 59-58.
After the Cougars rebounded a missed jumper by Manning, junior guard Matthew Leyco was fouled with 19 seconds remaining and converted both free throws for a 3-point edge for the hosts.
Following an inbound pass (along the sideline, opposite the Tesoro bench), Brown was fouled by Jackson Gray with 7.4 seconds to go – meaning, he was going to shoot two free throws since his team had long been in the bonus.
Mulligan was willing to risk inbounding the ball from the baseline with his team up (more on that topic later) by a point rather than letting Brown – who had already knocked in four closely-guarded 3s – get a potential typing jump shot off.
And that tells you the kind of respect for Mulligan and his staff have for Brown’s jump-shooting ability.
“He’s a great player,” he said while stealing a glance at the scorers’ table in the third quarter after once such deep jumper.
Brown swished both of his free throws (keep that in mind), the ball was inbounded quickly to Gucoglu, and he was fouled with 5.9 seconds to go.
He missed the first attempt (after swishing his first five) but converted the second for a two-point edge.
After Tesoro inbounded, there was no way Brown was going to be open for the catch without being swarmed, so the ball ended up in the hands of Manning, whose turn-around 15-footer – with defenders on each side of him – was off the iron as the buzzer sounded, setting off the on-court hoopla with the Cougars and other a bunch of other student body members.
And here’s the deal:
The final 3.5 seconds of regulation were even wackier than those final moments of OT.
With the Cougars up (52-50), the Titans were in scramble mode offensively before Garrett called a timeout with the 3.5 seconds to go.
When played resumed, the ball was inbounded from under the bucket (on Tesoro’s side of the floor) and into the hands of Brown along the left baseline.
He was immediately doubled but just as rapidly turned and flipped a pass into the hands of Manning in the left corner.
A great call by Garrett during the timeout for a potential game-winning 3 from Manning.
But . . .. Manning was fouled by Blake Gray as he was releasing the shot.
By the time the officials sorted it out, there was .4 of a second on the game clock and Manning was going to get three free throws that would get the Titans out of the gym with a victory by as slim a margin – and nearly as little time – as possible.
But he missed the first attempt, and Mulligan called one of his two remaining timeouts to “ice” Manning.
It didn’t work. He knocked it in. So, Mulligan signaled for his final timeout.
And that ploy didn’t work, either, for Mulligan.
So now, it just remained for the Cougars to inbound the ball with no chance of getting off a potential buzzer beater for the win since the buzzer was going to sound a milli-second after it touched someone inbounds.
Only Jackson Gray, the in bounder, couldn’t find an open teammate to pass to and signaled for a timeout to try to beat a five-second violation call by the official.
He beat the five-second call and was granted a timeout.
But remember, Mulligan had used the team’s last one before the third free-throw attempt . . .
Yep, trouble for the home team.
The officials conferred at the scorers’ table to confirm that the Cougars didn’t have a timeout remaining.
They trotted back on the court, called the “T” against the Cougars for signaling for the non-existent timeout – can’t call ‘em, if you ain’t got ‘em, guys – and asked Garrett to send a player to the free throw line for a couple of shots.
And, yes, Brown – who, at some point over the past 10 years or so, has probably nailed as many as 50 in a row in more than one gym or on more than one asphalt court.
He missed them both.
The Titans also were awarded the ball after the misses.
And it ended up in the hands of Brown, whose turn-around, 30-footer – and he got it off before the buzzer sounded – was off the iron.
Mulligan has been Capistrano Valley’s head coach since 1996 and was the school’s Teacher of the Year (World History) before retiring as a “teacher”, after 34 years at the school, last spring.
The son of the late and great coach, Bill Mulligan, there may been moments during the game in which Brian may have wondered if he’d made the career retirement call last spring.
Lecturing, and reading and grading essays ,can’t be as stressful as watching 17-year-olds shooting free throws with games on the line, right?
As for one of those players, though, what’s “stress” when you’ve just helped pull out a big win against your rival and are getting hugs and high-fives from teammates and classmates alike?
Gucoglu spent most of the night going eyeball-to-eyeball with defenders Nathan Draper or Brown – like, Gucoglu, one of the best “unsigned/not-committed” college prospects in Southern California – who did quality job of limiting his “catches” and then challenging his shooting vision when the ball was in his hands.
He’s played a lot of basketball – in American, in Turkey and across Europe – but he couldn’t come up with an answer when asked if he’d ever been part of a game quite like the one he’d just help pull out for the Cougars.
“Man, it was crazy,” Gucoglu.
He’d get no arguments from anyone who was in the gym – and, like Mulligan, everyone who will spend lot of time processing what they’d just seen and never quite get a handle on it.
Hey, man . . . it’s basketball, right?
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