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Presidents settle for second
With Grove City College clinging to a shaky two-point lead, Washington & Jefferson senior forward Jon Koch slashed across the top of the key, from left to right. Carrying the night's parcel of fate, Koch stopped and jumped. As the ball rolled off his fingers for the final shot of his stellar collegiate career - a 17-footer to force overtime - the last second of the PAC tournament championship game melted off the scoreboard clock.
Time seemed to stand still. There was only silence. All eyes were focused on the basketball.
"I have a lot of respect for Jon Koch. I think he's the MVP of our league," said Grove City coach Steve Lamie. "I was sure he was going out a hero."
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On this night, however, fate and the bounces weren't on W&J's side.
Koch's shot was a bit long, hit the left side of the rim and bounced harmlessly out of bounds as Grove City held on to edge W&J, 60-58, before a raucous crowd of 1,150 at Henry Memorial Center.
There was no overtime for the Presidents. Only stunned disbelief.
The championship capped a remarkable turnaround season for Grove City (16-12), which at one point was 0-3 in PAC play. If there was, however, a better story in the PAC this year than Grove City's, it belonged to W&J. The Presidents, who lost 10 of their first 11 games, battled back and came within (take your pick) one shot, one rebound, one turnover or one defensive stop of the league title.
"That was two quality teams out there that competed their hearts out," said a composed W&J coach Glenn Gutierrez. "I congratulate Grove City. They have an outstanding team. I told my coaching staff before the tournament that if there is one team out there that I didn't want to play, it was Grove City because they are so disciplined. They are a difficult matchup for anyone."
Yet for most of the tension-filled game's first 35 minutes, W&J led, though never by more than seven points. When senior guard Brandon Studer, who paced W&J with 18 points, made a driving shot in traffic with 5:46 to play, it gave W&J a 53-51 lead. The Presidents, however, made only one field goal the rest of the game.
"We've been down before. It seems like we've been the whole year," said Grove City senior forward Mark Smith, a Peters Township graduate. "Coming back is nothing new to us."
Grove City made one final charge and guard Shawn Carr, the leading three-point shooter in school history, led the way. Ryan Gerber made a three-pointer to give the Wolverines their first lead since early in the game, and Carr drained back-to-back shots from behind the arc to make it 60-53 with 1:55 left.
Studer answered with his fourth three-pointer and twice went to the free-throw line in the final minute. Each time, however, he made one of two attempts, but W&J rebounded his miss with 16 seconds left and trailing 60-58. Wahab Owolabi passed the ball back out front to Studer, who was too long on an open three-pointer that would have given W&J the lead.
The Presidents wisely fouled Grove City's Craig Hallman, a 58 percent free-throw shooter, who missed the front end of a one-and-one with eight seconds remaining, which set up W&J's final possession.
"We were a little hesitant at the end," Gutierrez said. "I almost called a timeout, but Jon made a play to get open. I'll take that look every day of the week. Against Westminster, that shot went down but tonight it didn't."
Carr, a 6-1 guard, led Grove City with game-highs of 19 points and 12 rebounds. Gibson scored 16 points.
Josip Lucic-Jozak had 12 points for W&J and point guard Scott Oklin had a big game with 10 points and five assists.
While the end was frustrating, it was quite a remarkable midseason turnaround by W&J. One that surprised everyone, except for maybe the Presidents.
"We left for Christmas break, after our tournament, with a 2-10 record. And nobody who was at our tournament expected us to be here tonight, except the guys in our locker room" Gutierrez said. "I told them it's not the destination but the journey. We had to take the attitude to get better each day and we did. ... It was an absolute pleasure to work with these young men."
