In March, all it takes is a single sequence to change an entire game — even in high school basketball.
At the Iowa Class 4A state championship tournament on Thursday night, Dallas Center-Grimes’ girls’ basketball team delivered an ending that was reminiscent of Reggie Miller’s eight points in nine seconds in Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference finals.
While facing elimination in the semifinal round, the Dallas Center-Grimes team found itself trailing Norwalk 42-38 with 35.9 seconds remaining in regulation.
Dallas Center-Grimes had possession of the ball on their baseline before inbounding to a cutting Ava Smid for an easy layup, to shrink the gap to two.
In high school basketball, the clock doesn’t stop after a made basket. But Smid didn’t let that stop her.
Off the basket, Norwich took the ball out with two timeouts in the chamber. Smid smothered her matchup on the inbound pass, eventually coming up with a steal and a short bank shot to tie the game.
Norwich took the ball out again — and once again, Smid collected another steal. This time, finishing another layup through contact for continuation to give Dallas Center-Grimes the lead, 44-42.
“It was the quickest six points I’ve ever witnessed in my life,” head coach Adam Jones said of Smid’s heroics.
“I was just trying to defend her, and I somehow got the ball and scored every time,” Smid said with a smile.
Dallas Center-Grimes guard Tessa Jones described the moment as “insane,” with each Smid bucket hyping the gym up more and more.
“Probably the craziest three seconds of my life,” Tessa Jones said.
Though the game has concluded, Smid is still living in the moment.
“I don’t even feel like we’re going to the state championship right now. I feel like I’m still like in the game, mentally,” Smid said.
She finished the game with 16 points, six steals and five rebounds.
Dallas Center-Grimes won the semifinal matchup 47-42 to advance to the state championship and extend their win streak to 15 games.
They’ll play in the championship on Saturday with hopes of winning their second state title.
Leave a Reply