Fortunately for followers of Greensburg basketball, Coach Dave White watches a lot of sports on television, particularly basketball.  It was, in fact, from a college game he viewed back in December that he got an idea for a court-length, last-second play that he put in place in Saturday night’s Sub State finals during a timeout with his team trailing Moscow 47-46 with 2.8 seconds remaining.
   Despite his squad not having practiced the play for at least a month, it worked to perfection, resulting in an Andrew Seiler 20-footer that barely beat the clock for a 49-47 win that sent the Rangers to the State Tournament for the first time in 30 years.
   “This is the kind of stuff fairy tales are made of,” White said later.  “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
   The luck to which White was referring was the fact that Moscow’s Colton Roland hit the second, rather than the first of his two free throws with 2.8 ticks left to give the Wildcats the one-point lead.  Missing the second would, of course, have led to a rebound resulting in most of the remaining time being eaten up before Greensburg could have called time or advanced the ball.
   White also said he preferred having the last-second chance to run a set play rather than Roland missing both free throws and going into overtime, largely because his senior point guard, Eric White, and senior 6-4 post, David Cesmat, had fouled out just moments earlier.
    Asked about the particular television game from which he’d gleaned the set play, White said he’d seen it run just before the half in a game played by either Michigan State or Valparaiso.  Liking what he’d seen, he remembered it and introduced it to his players during practice over the Christmas break.
   Not having practiced it for several weeks, White said he had to quickly refresh their memory by drawing it out again on his white board, making clear everyone’s responsibility.  He said he knew it was the right play because of Moscow Coach Brett Harp’s preference for playing nothing but man defense.
   “If there’s any possibility he comes out against us in zone, I go with something else,” White says.  “But he always goes man, so I knew this had a chance to work.  I told the players when I drew it up that we had a 35 percent chance of this working, and a 65 percent chance our season is over. But it won’t work if you even bobble it or hesitate for a split second.  We didn’t and it worked to a T.”
   The play, in a nutshell, had Logan Waters in bounding the ball from under Moscow’s basket, with Lane Allison standing just above the Moscow free throw line and Shane Engelken stationed near mid-court, while guards Seiler and Jarrett Schaef were positioned around Greensburg’s free throw stripe.
   The moment Waters touched the ball Engelken broke toward the Greensburg basket, taking both his defender and Allison’s with him to defend what would be perceived as an attempted court-length lob to Engelken. Seiler and Schaef, meanwhile, broke down the sidelines toward mid-court while Allison ran free toward mid-court to receive a bullet from Waters.
   As soon as Allison got the ball he moved it to Seiler who now reversed direction, dribbling toward the Greensburg goal.  After stopping to set his feet just beyond the three-point arc the 5-5 junior let go with a shot that hit nothing but net as the buzzer sounded.
    White said he remembers seeing Seiler look up at the clock as he dribbled back toward the Greensburg goal, checking to see how much time he had to get the shot off.
   Seiler was mobbed by first his teammates and then the descending horde of Greensburg supporters near the spot from which he launched the State-clinching trey.  Eric White, in fact, who’d only been able to watch helplessly from the bench during the finale, proceeded to sling the diminutive Seiler over his shoulder, toting him around the court and finally into the locker room.
   Asked how close to the three-point line he’d been or how much time was on the clock when he shot, Seiler could only shrug his shoulders and say he didn’t remember.  One thing he was certain of, however, was that “the shot” is to date the highlight of his life.  “Nothing I’ve ever done in sports comes close to this,” he said.
   With a ten-point lead at the break, Greensburg looked to be in fairly good shape as they emerged from the locker room for the third quarter.  But the period, which has typically been a good one for the Rangers, was anything but this time around, GHS scoring only four points in the quarter and not getting a score until an Allison lay up at the 4:32 mark.
   “We were just flat out bad in the third quarter, and really in most of the second half,” White said.  “The third quarter’s usually been kind to us, but not this time.  But the way things turned out, that’s fine.”
   The Ranger offense was nothing if not balanced, with seven getting in the book, though Allison was the lone scorer in double figures with 12.  All four guards—Waters, White, Schaef and White—had five apiece.
   Asked if it were the fact that this trip to Hays comes in the season following the tornado, or that this is his son’s senior season that makes this trip particularly special, White turned to a matter of culmination.
   “We’ve been knocking on the door (to go to State) for several years now,” White said.  “This group started playing together in fifth grade and the last several years I know they’ve been helped playing MAYB (summer league) ball.  That takes a commitment from the parents, as well as the kids.  So it’s nice to see that kind of commitment pay off.”
  As for how he’ll try to prepare his team mentally for the appearance in Hays after a pair of close, emotional wins over quality Macksville and Moscow teams in Sub State, White said it’s very simple.
   “I’m going to tell them to enjoy the day, because there won’t be a day two if we don’t win,” he said.  “But we’re going with the idea of winning.  We’re starting seniors and juniors so I don’t have to remind them of what it takes to compete at this level.  They know by now, and I expect them to compete very well Wednesday night.”
NOTES…
nThe third time may be the charm, as this is both Greensburg’s and White’s third trip to the State Tourney.  GHS won State in 1948 and went again 30 years later in 1978, meaning this appearance was due another three decades later.  White took Dighton teams to State in the consecutive years of 1980 and ’81, losing both times in the first round—their first time as 1A in Hays, the second as a 2A competitor in Manhattan.
nThe foul that led to Moscow’s Roland getting two foul shots with 2.8 seconds left was on Seiler, who appeared to barely graze Roland when he rebounded a missed Ranger shot.  White remembers telling the official who made the call, “Why don’t you let the kids decide this?”  The official’s response, according to White was, “I wish I hadn’t called that.”   White commented, “It burned me at the time, but as it turned out, it was the best thing for us after all.”
nAs the eighth seed with a 19-5 record, Greensburg will face top seed Colony-Crest (24-1) 6:30 Wednesday night, and if a winner, will then play the winner of fourth seed Centralia (21-2) and fifth seed South Gray (22-3) at 8:15.  On the other side of the bracket two seed Olpe (23-2) plays seven seed Natoma (20-4) at 3 in the afternoon, while three seed Hanover (23-2) takes on six seed Sharon Springs (20-4) at 4:45.