Inside Derby’s controversial, buzzer-beating win in 4 OTs at Washburn Rural for state bid
Tears streamed down the faces of several of the players on the Derby boys basketball team at the conclusion of its sub-state championship game at Washburn Rural.
The 48 minutes of game action, which included four overtimes with a berth to the state tournament on the line, featured some of the wildest emotional swings Derby veteran coach Brett Flory had ever experienced. There were moments where the Panthers felt like they had the game secured. There were even more moments where their season felt finished.
That’s why when the final buzzer — for real, this time — sounded and Derby prevailed 74-72 on a buzzer-beating, game-winning 3-pointer by sophomore Jack Ulwelling in the fourth overtime, the players were so emotionally spent that all they could do was cry.
“I told the guys if someone would have told me we’re crying in the locker room after the game, I would have thought it had gone bad,” Flory said. “I think these were the first tears of joy in the locker room after a game.”
The game will be remembered by some as an all-time clash of wills between two state-caliber teams that saw both sides dig deeper than they ever had before to produce an instant classic. Or it will be remembered as an all-time controversial finish, depending on the point of view.
Controversy swirled hours after the conclusion of the game because Washburn Rural appeared to have won the game in the second overtime.
With the Junior Blues clinging to a 59-57 lead and the final seconds dwindling, Derby’s Kaeson Fisher-Brown raced down the court and hurled up a 30-footer that badly missed, hitting the top of the backboard and sailing out of bounds. Players on Washburn Rural’s bench spilled onto the court to celebrate what they thought was the team’s first state berth since 2019.
The pandemonium in the home crowd was quickly halted by a cascade of whistles. Confusion began to set in on what the hold-up was.
If Fisher-Brown’s shot had simply hit off the top of the backboard and remained in play, Washburn Rural’s celebration would have been warranted. But because the shot missed so badly and was whistled dead out of bounds with three-tenths of a second left on the clock, Washburn Rural’s on-court celebration was deemed to be a violation and a technical foul was assessed after a brief meeting between officials.
“I thought we caught a tough break on a foul just before that and then obviously that was a tough break for them,” Flory said. “I feel like it kind of evened out. Both calls were probably right. It’s unfortunate, but it is the rule that if you run onto the court when there’s still time on the clock, that is a technical foul.”
Did the referees make the right call by the book? Coaches from both sides seemed to agree they did. But could they have used their discretion to issue a warning instead of a technical foul with the game essentially over? That’s the question Washburn Rural was left wondering.
“It’s a tough play because there was .3 seconds on the clock, the ball goes out of bounds, the referee throws his arm up and the buzzer goes off,” Washburn Rural assistant coach Kyle Fowler told TopSports.news. “They called it the way they had to call it, but it’s tough for these kids.”
The controversial call overshadowed the fact that Fisher-Brown still had to go to the foul line and convert two straight pressure-packed free throws with his senior season on the line.
Fisher-Brown, who finished with a team-high 23 points, wouldn’t have had it any other way. He calmly sank both.
“I work so hard for those kinds of moments,” Fisher-Brown said. “I knew they were going in. I was ready for it and I was really calm. I just kept thinking, ‘Let’s get ready for the next overtime.’”
Despite the devastating turn of events, Washburn Rural showed its resilience by building a seven-point lead in the third OT behind a 31-point explosion from Jack Bachelor. Tempers flared and technicals were assessed on both sides in the period, which seemed to spark Derby. The Panthers’ comeback was completed in the final seconds with Dallas Metzger connecting on a game-tying 3-pointer to force a fourth overtime with the score tied at 66.
Derby gained its first lead in any of the overtime periods when Metzger drilled another triple and Cooper Chadwick put the Panthers in front 71-70 in the final minute. In trying to protect the lead, Ulwelling turned the ball over underneath Derby’s own basket, which led to Washburn Rural taking the lead, 72-71, with 12.5 seconds left.
“I made a really silly turnover and it almost cost us the game,” Ulwelling said. “I knew I could either lose us the game or win us the game.”
After a timeout, Flory put the ball in the hands of Fisher-Brown and diagrammed a double screen for him at the top of the key to try to allow him to turn the corner and go into attack mode. Washburn Rural wasn’t having it; the Junior Blues hard hedged the screen, then double-teamed Fisher-Brown, who evaded down the left sideline and drew a third defender when Ulwelling’s man came off of him in the left corner to cut off Fisher-Brown’s lane to the basket.
With the game — and the season — on the line, those are the shots that Fisher-Brown dreams of taking and the ones he works all off-season to be prepared to make.
“I’m not going to lie, I was definitely thinking I was going to shoot it the whole time,” Fisher-Brown said. “But I came off the screen and they doubled me and then they tripled me. I knew I could force a shot, but at the end of the day, I know Jack has put in the work too and he’s an elite shooter and that corner is his spot. I had to trust him.”
The senior star gave up his chance for glory and passed to the sophomore who had just made the mistake. But in Ulwelling’s mind, the turnover was long gone. He was focused solely on the same form and the same follow-through that he’s used to make hundreds of 3-pointers from that exact spot in the left corner.
“That’s a shot I take every day in practice,” Ulwelling said. “I knew Kaeson would look for me if it was the right decision and he made the right decision.”
Ulwelling’s release barely beat the hard contest from Washburn Rural, as his feet landed in the same spot as they left the ground and he kept his right arm hanging in the follow-through motion. The shot splashed through the net, then the final buzzer sounded the next moment. Chaos ensued.
“I knew right when I shot it,” Ulwelling said. “Bango.”
“It was such a crazy moment. I didn’t know what to do. I started crying.”
Flory raved about the sophomore’s ability to compartmentalize. Just minutes after committing a crucial turnover, Ulwelling’s confidence never wavered in the season’s biggest moment to send Derby (16-6) back to state for the first time since 2018.
“Jack is a different breed, man,” Flory said. “He’s an elite competitor. In basketball, we call those guys a ‘dog.’ He definitely is one.”
It might take Derby the rest of the weekend to emotionally recover and prepare for the Class 6A state tournament in Wichita.
It might take Washburn Rural the entire offseason to emotionally recover from a loss like that.
“That was the longest game I’ve ever played in my life,” Fisher-Brown said. “I had to sit down after that one. It was hard, but it was a huge relief. We’re going to keep going and keep dancing. We might be in this situation again next week, who knows. But we proved tonight that we never give up on each other.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
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