TERRE HAUTE — This column was written before high school boys basketball sectional activity the past two days, so I don’t know how much Hoosier Hysteria still remains at the tournament level.
I did catch a glimmer of it last week, however.
Circumstances took me to Clay City a little more than a week ago, where the Eels were playing Linton — two teams who entered the game with a combined 5-31 record, playing on a Tuesday night.
Recipe for boredom? Hardly. The gym was almost full by the end of the junior varsity game, one of the best small-school pep bands in the state was playing, and the two teams battled literally to the final second of the game to determine an outcome that might have seemed meaningless to anyone but themselves.
Not a bad night of entertainment at all, in other words, and it started during that impeccably officiated (just kidding) JV game.
At the end of the first half of that junior varsity contest, with the score tied, Clay City’s Kole Smith threw up a 55-foot jumper just ahead of the buzzer. Nothing but net.
Linton regained the lead in the third quarter, but Clay City scored in its final seconds. Ben Brown of the Miners caught the in-bounds pass with tenths of a second left, flung it baseball-style to the other end — and swished it, this one from at least 75 feet away.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Kole and Ben are both left-handed.
Two more longtime rivals who staged a great show were Sullivan and South Vermillion on Friday at Sullivan, another game that went right down to the wire in one of the noisiest gyms of the season.
You would think that everybody who saw that game would have been eager to see the teams have a rematch Wednesday night in sectional play — except they had to drive to Spencer to see it.
The folks in Hulman Center a little over a month ago who watched Terre Haute North play Terre Haute South might be rooting for a rematch of that game this week too — but they’ll have to go all the way to Plainfield to watch it, or to watch Northview try to make sure that rematch doesn’t happen.
It’s a good system.
• • •
• More Linton news — Got some e-mails celebrating the Miners’ outstanding girls basketball season, including the news that Stephanie Fougerousse finished her career as Greene County’s all-time leading scorer with 1,801 points — Lyndsey Secrest of Bloomfield, like Stephanie one of my all-time favorite people, had 1,788 — and with 1,169 rebounds that may also be a county girls record.
Stephanie also had eight of 14 school records set by the Miners during the year: most rebounds in a game (23, twice), best free throw percentage in a game (12 for 12), best field goal percentage in a game (10 for 10), most points in a season (564), most rebounds in a season (365), most free throws in a season (174), most free throw attempts in a season (213) and best free throw percentage for a season (.817).
Olivia Robison had the most 3-pointers in a game (8), most 3-pointers attempted in a game (12), most 3-pointers made in a season (49) and most 3-pointers attempted in a season (142).
And Savannah Mason had the most assists in a season (95) and tied the record for most assists in a game (11).
Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. for comments or news items at (812) 231-4277 or at 1-800-783-8742; by e-mail at andy.amey@tribstar.com; by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808; or by fax at (812) 231-4321.
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Amey Takes Aim: It's called Hoosier Hysteria for a reason
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