WISE — Regulation was not enough. It went to overtime. Down one point after a missed Honaker free throw with 5.8 seconds remaining, Lebanon sophomore Mike Reece grabbed the basketball and raced the length of the floor, nailing a jumper to beat the buzzer in the ninth annual Powell Valley National Bank Hoops Classic on Saturday.
“I talked about calling a timeout, but no one listened,” Reece said. “The ball was bouncing; I looked up, the clock was running; I just ran down the floor as quick as I could and was able to hit the game-winner.”
Reece’s heroics gave the Pioneers a 58-57 overtime triumph over their arch-rival Honaker in front of a huge David J. Pryor Convocation Center crowd. It was a storybook finish for first-year Lebanon coach Scotty Boyd, as several players had transferred between the schools before the school year began.
“Mike is unbelievable,” Coach Boyd said. “He’s a great kid, a great talent. I had a timeout. I was planning to call it, but when he got the rebound and went on the move, that was the best thing we were going to get. Credit to Mike, he put it in.”
The win was sweet music to Lebanon after falling to Honaker 62-51 on their home floor on December 15th.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” said Reece, awarded the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award for his efforts. “Any time you can beat Honaker, they are a well-coached team. I couldn’t be prouder to beat a good, quality team like that.”
Lebanon was up five, 51-46, with 19.6 seconds remaining in regulation. Parker Bandy drilled a 3-pointer with just over 10 seconds remaining, and the Pioneer lead was down to two.
The Tigers quickly fouled Caden Boyd with 9.6 seconds left. He missed the first but dropped in the second for Lebanon, and it was a three-point margin.
Honaker got the ball into the front court and called a timeout. They passed the ball to Keyton Keene, who launched an off-balance shot with Reece on top of him and hit nothing but the bottom of the net to tie it, sending it to overtime.
“We thought we had the game won, I kept telling my guys to settle down,” commented Boyd. We didn’t make our free throws; I told coach [Thad] Lambert on the bench that we’re leaving the door open for them. We missed three free throws in the last 30 seconds, and they hit back-to-back 3s. That last one, give Keyton credit, was a heck of a shot.
“I got burned [coaching at Southwest Virginia Community] at the College a couple of times. I swore to myself to foul up three late. I let them talk me out of it in the huddle, and it was my fault. I’ve learned my lesson, so I promise to foul up three late.”
Do you want a close see-saw contest? It was tied ten times, and there were 16 lead changes. Honaker was up 42-37 but had a horrendous fourth quarter. They were 1-of-10 from the floor with two turnovers before the 3s by Bandy and Keene to tie it.
“Give Lebanon credit. They beat us,” Honaker coach Waylon Hart said. “Not that we played terrible defense, but we didn’t play our defense. I thought Lebanon was very comfortable offensively. We just weren’t aggressive enough.
“Offensively, we didn’t do things right at the correct time. I feel we got stagnated, and that’s my fault. We didn’t cut off our post entry and hit the cutters with passes from the post like we did in the win at Lebanon.”
Keene totaled 23 points with nine boards. Bandy added 12 points with two assists and three steals for Honaker.
Reece scored 23 points with ten rebounds. Andy Lambert (14 points) and Caden Boyd (12) were also in double figures for Lebanon.
It is back-to-back titles for Lebanon in the tournament. They also won the championship in the initial year of the Classic in 2014.
“We had a hard bracket, four games in four days,” Boyd said. “We earned this from start to finish, we played four good teams. Hat’s off to Honaker; they have a great team; we were able to snap it out in the last minute and get it done.”