The Curse of the Mill Mountain Star
Because, in one school year, the Bees have become the bane of the Leemen’s Region III, Division 3 existence.
First, it was in football when Brookville’s Logan Thomas went all I’m-Going-To-Va-Tech on the Leemen and led the Bees to a 40-14 romp in the Region III, Division 3 tournament. That happened back in November.
Flash forward to Tuesday night, this time in Staunton, where Thomas and his Bees once again sent the Leemen home early. This time in basketball and this time with a 48-43 overtime win over Lee.
So how did this come about? Well for starters, a 22-7 Brookville run to end the game didn’t help matters much.
For finishers, how about Thomas’ strip of JR Gray then driving for a thunderous hey-this-game-is-tied dunk with under a minute left to play. Sure, all that did was tie the game in regulation (on paper), but what it really did was kill the Leemen’s chances of moving on.
We call that a momentum swing. Lee never recovered and never got the momentum back.
Lee should call it, well, “Let’s Never Play This Brookville Team in Anything Again. Ever. Sorry.“
Really, how do the Bees — on the Leemen’s home court, mind you —- come back from 12 down in the fourth quarter to send this thing into the extra period? How does this happen?
“The fourth quarter is our quarter,“ Thomas said.
Oh, OK. So that takes care of that.
Now imagine being Fort Defiance’s Tyler Hoffman today. Imagine that 3-pointer you put into the air that cut the nylon with less than 20 seconds left to play in overtime. Imagine doing it in hostile territory.
Go ahead, take a second.
Now imagine doing it only to watch, oh about 19 second later, Northside’s Neil Brown split the defense and chuck in a layup as the buzzer sounds. In overtime. To give the Vikings the win. To send the Indians packing.
I’m telling you, if I’m the Southern Valley District, I don’t want to see the Mill Mountain Star or any of the teams that play in its shadow ever again.
For a long time.
No. I’m not kidding.
