On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa - Ohhhhh PFalls! Panthers Historic Win was One of a Kind Drama

On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa
(Mar. 16, 2010) - Ohhhhh PFalls!

To come so far and fall just short would have been heartbreaking but Potomac Falls High School -- in a bid to become the first team in Loudoun history to win a Virginia High School League boys basketball state title -- appeared at times Saturday as if they couldn't quite knock off a Broadway squad that was cheered on by their entire town.

Starting four juniors and a sophomore -- just two seniors on the roster -- would have been an easy excuse for Potomac Falls to not quite reach the mountaintop and Broadway with three key senior starters had been waiting almost as long, with its only title coming in 1926.

The Siegel Center for the Division 4 final was a sea of green, looking like Dublin on St. Patrick's Day, as it appeared that almost the entire town of 3,200 had made the trip from Broadway in the Shenandoah Valley and with their Fighting Gobblers up by four points with 1:39 to play, surely the Panther dream would have to wait a season.

But Ohhhhh PFalls! Here comes Lukas Miahilovich, a 6-foot junior with mad skills, who averaged 26 points a game in the postseason, and he was on his way to matching his jersey number of 33 Saturday as he drove in to cut the lead to two with 1:24 to go.

And there was Mickey Wagenhoffer and Greg Graves trapping the ball as a Broadway ballhandler slipped near the lane and Brendon Chesson took the ball swiftly down the floor and pulled-up in the lane and buried a jumper with 31 seconds to go.

Broadway still had a shot to win it but Chris Knight, who scored a team-high 19 points, had his long jumper miss at the buzzer. And then in the first overtime, the Gobblers had an even better shot to take home the title as Adam Caplinger was fouled with two seconds to go and his team down by one. The first shot missed and the second was good to force a second overtime but only have Mihailovich's three-quarter court shot drew net but just missed the cylinder.

Ohhhhh PFalls! Panther coach Jeff Hawes had been waiting for this moment all of his life and the second overtime was an extension of his 13 years of building the Panther program from scratch. Broadway was spent from not securing its win in regulation or the first overtime and now Mihailovich, as large on court as he was on the arena's overhead big screen, took over and led Potomac Falls to a place no Loudoun team had ever been with a 69-64 win over Broadway.

When the final seconds counted down, Hawes collapsed against his players on the bench, acknowledged the fans behind the bench and the students behind the basket like a fired-up rock star and then took to the court with players, running with arms out-stretched in jubilation. His players hoisted Hawes onto their shoulders at midcourt and he gave a fist pump skyward.

And there were the hugs, always the hugs with Hawes and this emotional Panther team. There were enough hugs this postseason for Potomac Falls to fill a season's worth of programming on the Oprah Winfrey show and not many dry eyes as well.

Perhaps the biggest hug for Hawes -- besides with Mihailovich, who proved himself in the semifinals and finals with a 29 points and 11.5 rebounds average, as one of the top players in AA in the state and soon to be the greatest player to ever play for PFalls -- was with 6-foot-6 Greg Graves, a sophomore who seemed to grow up overnight in the tournament, averaging 11.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 9.0 blocks in the semifinals and finals. Graves grabbed Hawes and lifted the coach off the ground, feet dangling, as Panther fans reigned down cheers upon the bench.

Even though Potomac Falls had beaten Broadway in Sterling this season by 13 it was mostly Gobblers for three quarters as Broadway staked itself to a small lead early and nursed it until the start of the fourth. Potomac Falls, trailing anywhere between two and six points for the game, came out firing in the fourth quarter with Zack Curran scoring two baskets to put Potomac Falls ahead, 39-38 and then Graves turned a steal into a breakaway dunk to ignite the Panthers fans.

Broadway did not crumble and the two teams battled back and forth until Kyle Van Orden scored twice to put the Gobblers up 52-48 with 1:39 to go.

Graves almost finished with his second straight triple-double, scoring eight with eight blocks and 15 rebounds.

The Panthers, against an aggressive Gobbler defense, struggled in the first half, shooting just 5 of 25 and Mihailovich had four of those field goals with the rest of the team combining for 1 of 16 from the field.

Potomac Falls relaxed in the second half and starting to shoot better from the field, going 12 of 30 in the second half and 3 of 5 in overtime.

In the locker room after the game, it was a final postgame huddle for the team's only two season, Tarrell Owens and Garrett Hansen, players who have the rare treat of finishing their prep careers on a winning note.

For the rest of the players it was a chance to savior their place in history and the knowledge that the entire starting unit and 11 total have a chance to repeat it next season. As the Freedom High School girls proved in the game right before it is possible to meet expectation and expectation will be sky high for the Panthers next year. Ohhhhh PFalls!