Brown Lifts Lebanon Past Radford in Thrilling Win

BRISTOL, Va. – The name Justin Brown may be remembered in Lebanon for the next 100 years.

A powerful 6-foot-2 baseliner, Brown’s improbable, laying-sideways, twisted-like-a-pretzel, coast-to-coast, double-pump, 12-foot runner at the buzzer somehow found the bottom of the basket Saturday night as Lebanon claimed an electrifying 62-61 state quarterfinal win over nemesis Radford at the Bearcat Den.

The victory sends the Pioneers (20-5) to next weekend’s Group A, Division 2 semifinals in Richmond.

Brown’s heroics came about after Radford’s William Minter, who had been four of four at the foul line, missed the front end of a one-and-one bonus with 6.4 seconds remaining.

The sophomore hit the game-winner after weaving and bobbing some 80 feet with the basketball after fighting for a tough rebound. The ball laid dead on the rim for a second before falling in.

“I had my man boxed out but he got around me, so I had to hustle for the ball,” said Brown, after spending a couple minutes at the bottom of a pile of humanity at midcourt. “I just grabbed it and started running as fast as I could [down the right sideline].

“When I cut to the middle on our end of the floor I knew time was running out so I kinda just threw it up. I just threw it up there and I got a lucky roll and it went in.”

Brown barely considered giving the ball up.

“I could see Bob [Jones] open a little on the wing but he had a man kinda near him,” he said. “But I knew I had to just go with it. There was no time to lose.”

In an superbly-contested game, Lebanon needed the near-miracle shot because the Region D champions had blown a 51-41 lead with four minutes to play, after opening the final period with a 12-2 run that broke a 39-39 tie.

The Pioneers had entered the fourth quarter without their captain, Jerome Cobb, who had picked up his fourth and fifth fouls on the same play (the fifth occuring on an unsportsmanlike technical) with 1:18 left in the third period.

“Jerome is our best player and when he went out it brought our heads down a little,” said senior point guard Andrew Jessee. “But after the quarter break we got it together and we all stepped up bigtime and maybe played with a little more passion.”

Radford (17-7) roared back from its 10-point deficit behind Dontae Carter and 6-7 Jerome Alexander, grabbing a 55-54 lead with 1:28 to play. Carter and Minton kept the Region C runner-up Bobcats in front with four straight foul shots, leaving Lebanon down 61-58 with 19.5 remaining.

Lebanon’s Ben Hendrickson then hit two of three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt with 13.9 on the clock, before Minton missed from the line with Radford leading 61-60.

The next 6.4 seconds had to seem surreal to Lebanon coach Thad Lambert, who boo-hooed uncontrollably at courtside.

“I can’t remember if it was Ben or Robert who was over on the wing but Justin kinda dribbled at him for a second and when he did that, the two defenders took a step that way,” the third-year coach said. “So then Justin just reverse-dribbled and was able to get all the way to the rim, and by the grace of God it went down.

“It would have been real easy for these kids to quit after giving up a 10-point lead, and it would have been easy to quit when their captain fouled out. But it’s just not in these kids to quit, and now we’re going to Richmond.”

The sweet-shooting Hendrickson led Lebanon with 15 points, while Brown added 14 and Jessee 12. Radford was led by Alexander’s 22 points and Carter’s 16.

Lebanon raced to a 15-8 lead early before Radford came back to grab a 20-19 advantage with 6:14 left in the second quarter. The Pioneers led 31-30 at halftime of a game that featured six ties and 13 lead-changes.

The Pioneers shot a toasty 64 percent from the floor (20 of 31) but missed 15 of 34 free throws. Radford, 12 of 16 at the foul line, was a cool 22 of 62 from the field for 35 percent, including just five of 22 on 3-point attempts.

“I thought our 2-3 zone we went to in the second quarter [switching from a man-to-man when Cobb picked up his second foul] was a key part of our victory,” said Lambert. “We made it tough on them shooting 3s.”

Lebanon and Radford, which outrebounded the Pioneers 35-20, each committed 19 turnovers.