#5. December 15: Bruins take Trojans to the wire
Entering the Trojan Trench in Bourbon, Ind., on the night of December 15, Bethany was not even the biggest basketball story in Goshen. That honor belonged to Goshen College senior Errick McCollum II, who that night broke the Maple Leafs career scoring record. But if the Bruins, who began their third game in six days 1-4 and 20-point underdogs in the statewide Sagarin ratings, were not a story before that game, they certainly were after.
Triton came in 5-0 and ranked second in class 1A by the Associated Press. The only school ahead of them was Bowman Academy, the eventual state champion; Triton had been a state finalist in 2009 and won the title in 2008. Bethany had made it as far as semistate only twice, most recently in 2002. The Bruins took their first sectional trophy in seven years home in 2009, only to see their season end on the same court on which they were about to play.
But from the opening tip, none of that history mattered. Bethany outscored Triton 15-8 in the first quarter. They tacked on 21 more in the second, their highest-scoring quarter of the year to that point, with the lead ballooning to 13 points before settling back into a 36-28 halftime lead. The lead would be gradually siphoned off in the third quarter, as Triton closed the gap to 38-37 after three periods.
In the waning seconds, the game’s defining moment came. Seth Kauffman picked off a Triton pass near midcourt, and the resulting slam dunk with 0.2 seconds to play would set the final score at 52-50 in Triton's favor. It was Kauffman’s fifth career dunk, as well as the first for which we have photographic evidence; that photo, taken by Orion Lemler of the Triton Trojan Athletic Club, can be seen at the top of this post.
Bethany didn’t win its second game of the season that night. However, it would do so that Saturday against Clinton Christian. From there, the Bruins did no looking back, winning 13 of 15 games starting with the holiday tournament and finishing the regular season 13-7. They would lose in the sectional semifinal to a Fort Wayne Blackhawk squad that was one of the last eight teams in class 1A.
#4: February 17: Helmuth’s three sinks Jimtown
As I said above, once the boys basketball team started winning, it did not look back. But on another Tuesday night nine weeks later, they almost did. Again it was a road game, not in the 3,470-seat Trojan Trench but in the still-cavernous Jimtown High School gym with its capacity of 2,106. Bethany entered the game short a pair of players due to illness in point guard Jesse Ramer and forward Andrew Slagel.
This time the Bruins fell behind off the tip, with a bucket from 6-4 forward Brian Hosinski giving Jimtown a lead with 6:04 to play. The buckets weren’t kind to either team that period, as the combined 3-for-13 shooting would indicate. Another basket from Hosinski at the 2:18 mark made him the game’s leading scorer to that point; Jimtown led 6-0, and the score would stay that way until the period’s end.
Bethany came out strong in the second quarter, as they did in the Triton game. This time, however, it was on the defensive end, as they held Jimtown without a point for over 13 minutes into the third quarter; the scoreless second quarter was their best defensive stanza of the season. Hamilton Thorne matched Jimtown’s first-quarter output by himself, with six points on 3-of-6 shooting and four rebounds in the quarter. The Bruins would add a bucket from Mikey Kelly with 5:17 to go, followed just over two minutes later by a three-point shot from reserve guard James Helmuth to take the lead at 7-6.
Jimtown struck back for the first points the second half with a three from Brae Beadles, then tied the game at 14 with a Bret Giddings long-distance shot at 2:40. Thorne’s field goal gave Bethany the lead back only to be answered by another Giddings three-pointer, then Seth Kauffman’s layup was quickly answered by Beadles from downtown. Jimtown led 20-18 with 1:34 to play in the third, and they would maintain that lead for over nine minutes.
After a three-point play from Beadles, the Bruins trailed by five with a quarter left. While the fact that Bethany trailed would not soon change, neither did their offense stagnate. Thorne would mark the first tally of the final period at 6:10, answered by Hosinski 105 seconds later. The teams traded baskets until a pair of free throws from Ben Bontreger with just less than three minutes left cut the gap to 28-24. A three-pointer from Helmuth made it a one-point game with 1:49 showing on the Fair-Play scoreboard. Jimtown would hold the ball for more than a minute, taking advantage of the Bruins’ three team fouls to milk the clock until inside of 25 seconds remained when Femi Hollinger-Janzen fouled.
The subsequent inbound pass was picked off by a leaping Helmuth, and Bethany coach Jim Buller called timeout with :20.4 left to set up the offense. Buller told newspapers after the game that his play was supposed to go inside, but Jimtown’s post presence was too significant. So the ball found Helmuth in the right corner, and he shot. The ball hit nylon with four seconds remaining.
The clock would be reset to 5.1 seconds, but four timeouts later, Bethany would emerge with a 30-28 win. James Helmuth, the only sub to enter for the Bruins, finished with nine points, hitting his last three 3-point attempts and ending as the team’s second-leading scorer. You said his last shot was the fourth most memorable moment from the 2009-10 season, and this game will come up again in the countdown.
(Photo by Ricky Yoder/
Be Blessed Photos, via
Michiana Sports Authority)
Coming tomorrow: We’ll take the pitch with the girls soccer team for two nights in October.
