By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
There are district championship celebrations and then there was the Thomas Jefferson boys basketball team on Friday night.
Dhruv Gheewala heaved the basketball in the air at the buzzer and Drew Goodhope and Caden Myers joined him in a giant leap near the half court line. A referee made a quick exit as the Cavaliers bench swarmed past, and the student section soon joined them.
It was an outpouring of emotion for a Thomas Jefferson team making its third-straight appearance in a district title game; finally, though, the Cavaliers had won it.
Final score: Thomas Jefferson 55, McAuley Catholic 43.
“It’s real exciting,” head coach Chris Myers said. “To see these kids work so hard three years in a row and just to come up short the last two years and know this was at the top of their goal sheet to start the season, to see it all happen for them tonight it’s a beautiful moment.”
A 47-45 loss to Purdy dashed the Cavaliers’ hopes last season. Two years ago it was a 56-50 loss to Liberal.
On Friday they took to the court against cross-town rival McAuley. The two schools are less than four miles apart but the teams traveled 40 miles to face off in Lamar as the top two seeds in District 7.
By the end of a back-and-forth first quarter Thomas Jefferson led 17-13. The top-seeded Cavaliers never trailed again, but had to withstand several McAuley runs.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
It was 21-13 a minute into the second after a Gheewala layup capped a 9-0 run and the lead grew to 10 points later in the quarter after a basket by Myers. McAuley scored six straight after that, but Thomas Jefferson answered with another 9-0 run and led by a game-high 13 after free throws by Goodhope.
McAuley scored in the final minute and Thomas Jefferson led 35-24 at the half.
“Basketball is a game of runs and we knew they weren’t going to be done,” Myers said. “Having an 11-point lead at half we knew they were going to come out swinging. We just had to have an answer and we did all night. I was proud of the boys for holding up. Every run they had we had an answer for.”
The Cavaliers led by as many as 12 points in the third quarter but could never extend it beyond that. The Warriors pulled within six points after back-to-back scores by Daniel Wagner and Thomas Black; Thomas Jefferson answered with a Myers free throw and then Goodhope made three in a row after he was fouled shooting a three pointer.
Again trailing by a dozen, the Warriors threatened for the last time early in the fourth quarter when Matthew Dohmen nailed a three pointer and Wagner scored a two. It was 48-41 with 6:20 on the clock.
The Warriors were scoreless on their next four possessions, though, and Goodhope and Myers combined for three more free throw makes and Gheewala scored to make it a 53-41 game with 3:56 remaining.
After Goodhope made two more free throws with 47 seconds left, McAuley coach Tony Witt waved the white flag and substituted for his five seniors on the court: Wagner, Joseph Lupicki, Black, Cade Englert and Dohmen.
Thomas Jefferson won for the third time in three weeks against McAuley. Myers said that was a difficult task, “especially against a well-coached team like McAuley.”
“Coach Witt’s done a great job with that group,” he said. “We knew it was going to be tough and they were going to give us everything they had and we were going to have to work and get it done. I’m just proud of the boys for getting it done.”
Thomas Jefferson improved to 19-5. McAuley fell to 9-16.
Goodhope scored 19 points, Gheewala added 14 and Myers finished with 10. Wagner led McAuley with 17.
The Cavaliers will face Miami (9-13) on Tuesday in the sectional round.
“My heart was racing all day, stomach was churning all day which is great, it’s why you do this,” Myers said. “When you start losing that feeling I guess it’s time to get out so lucky it’s still there but it definitely feels like a monkey off the back but it feels pretty darn good.”
