‘It was the best feeling I’ve ever felt in basketball’: Brookstone senior hits playoff buzzer-beater
Brookstone basketball player Joel Brown knew he had been here before.
The game was in the final seconds of Brookstone’s second-round matchup against Prince Avenue Christian on Thursday, but the setup looked remarkably similar to the team’s first-round game against W.D. Mohammed. In that game, the Cougars were up one in the final seconds of overtime when a Brookstone shot bounced off the glass.
Brown jumped toward the ball, grabbed the rebound and tried to sink the putback. Brown’s shot, however, missed the mark, giving W.D. Mohammed a chance to take the game.
W.D. Mohammed couldn’t take advantage of Brown’s miss. Five days later, the situation began to repeat itself.
With the score tied 54-54 with about 10 seconds to go, Brown moved up the key to set a pick for Chris Edmonds, who identified an open lane to the basket and drove toward it. With two Prince Avenue Christian defenders closing in, Edmonds tried to lay the ball up as the defenders converged, but the ball fell short.
Brown ran under the basket as Edmonds got closer, and the missed shot started to fall into Brown’s hands as he leaped.
“I saw (Edmonds) went up, and the ball didn’t hit anything,” Brown said. “The moment I got the ball, I remembered it was the same exact situation from W.D. Mohammed when I missed the same shot.”
This time, Brown’s shot fell through the net, giving Brookstone a two-point lead with four seconds left. Brown and his teammates got quite a scare when Prince Avenue Christian’s half-court heave flew toward the basket, but its clank off the rim signaled a 56-54 Brookstone victory.
WHAT A FINISH! @BrkstoneCougars defeat Prince Avenue Christian 56-54. Cougars advance to Class A-Private quarterfinals. Video courtesy Tiffany Grier pic.twitter.com/ZThmV1O0ae
— lesports (@lesports) February 23, 2018
“When the shot came out of his hand and almost went in, I was scared for my life. As soon as I saw he missed, I couldn’t believe what just happened,” Brown said. “It was the best feeling I’ve ever felt in basketball. My teammates got off the bench, and I saw them coming over to me. I just got tackled. I never felt more like a team before.”
Brown’s heroics were the latest triumph for a Brookstone program which has reached new heights. After surviving a region full of talented teams like Manchester and Central-Talbotton, the Cougars beat W.D. Mohammed for the team’s first state tournament win in school history. They followed it up with their second straight upset over Prince Avenue Christian, which was the No. 9 team in the Class A-Private bracket.
The recent victories are a far cry from what Brown and his teammates had been accustomed to.
“The group that Joel, Sutton (Eggena) and Trey (Lingo) is in, they only won three games their freshman year,” Brookstone coach Bentley Sparks said. “The next year we won seven. Last year we won 13. This year, having the chance to play in the state tournament has been unreal.”
Sparks credited the team’s unselfishness for its push through the playoffs. Brown exudes the same attitude when asked about his highlight, which was his second chance at being Brookstone’s hero.
“My team’s always been there for me, and I’ve just been waiting for the moment where I can help push them over the edge,” Brown said. “When I got the chance, it was the best feeling I’ve ever had to know I gave my team something back.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 6:33 PM with the headline "‘It was the best feeling I’ve ever felt in basketball’: Brookstone senior hits playoff buzzer-beater."