For a century, Douglass waited. How one shot changed its basketball history
For more than 100 years, the space waited.
It sat there inside Douglass’ gymnasium, an empty boys basketball banner, a blank piece of history that generations of Bulldogs had never been able to change.
Before this season, coach Matt Lawson made his team look up at that banner, think about it and try to understand what it meant. Think about the challenge. About the opportunity.
And this past Saturday night, more than two hours away in a tiny gym overflowing with noise and nerves and the kind of small-town belief that can make Kansas high school basketball feel bigger than it is, Douglass finally filled that empty space in the most unbelievable way imaginable.
Down two points in double overtime. Four of its top six players fouled out. The season hanging by a thread. The school’s first state-tournament berth on the line.
So Douglass did the unthinkable.
The Bulldogs held for one final shot, knowing it had to be a 3-pointer. No safety net. No second chance. No Plan B.
Just one shot — to change history.
Junior Kemper Cox dribbled out front as the seconds bled away and the tension inside Arma-Northeast’s gym rose with every bounce. Uniontown was content to let the clock melt. Douglass was content to live or die with one swing.
As the clock hit 10 seconds, Cox made his move. He took a screen, dribbled to his right, stepped inside the arc, then hopped back behind the line for a step-back 3 over a hard contest. It was the kind of shot he’s never actually attempted in a game, only joking around with friends after practice.
But Cox let it fly anyway.
The net barely moved.
Cox swears he never actually saw the biggest shot in Douglass history go in, but he’ll be hearing about it for the rest of his life after his game-winning 3 lifted the Bulldogs to a 74-73 win over Uniontown in the sub-state final and into the state tournament for the first time in school history.
“I remember letting it go and watching it fly toward the rim, but then I feel like everything went dark from there,” Cox said. “I don’t even remember seeing it go in. It just sounded like an explosion went off in the gym. That’s how I knew it went in.”
What followed could only be described as chaos fitting for a first-time state celebration.
Cox stomped and threw his hands in the air, as he tried to process what had just happened. Junior Kane Ast sprinted in circles around the court, a fist raised high in celebration. The rest of Douglass’ players swarmed Cox in the corner in a dog pile of disbelief and joy.
“It was like a dream,” Cox said. “It honestly didn’t feel real. I couldn’t believe that just happened.”
Just two weeks ago, a feeling like that was the furthest thing from Douglass’ mind.
The Bulldogs limped into the postseason having lost seven straight games to close the regular season, finishing 10-11 for the No. 8 seed in its sub-state bracket. From the outside, Douglass looked like a team running out of gas.
But Lawson and his players saw something else.
Five of those seven losses came against Class 3A teams in Cheney, Wichita Trinity, Kingman, Garden Plain and Chaparral. Douglass had taken its lumps in the Central Plains League, but knew its schedule was far tougher than what most 2A teams faced. The record wasn’t pretty, but the Bulldogs believed the scar tissue would matter in March.
“When you’re not winning games, it’s easy to get frustrated,” Lawson said. “But we just told our guys to stay the course. There were some emotional times, no doubt. But we always felt that once we got to our sub-state, we were going to be able to compete.”
That belief became a postseason run that now feels straight out of a script.
First came an easy opening-round win over Arma-Northeast. Then Douglass stunned top-seeded Cedar Vale-Dexter on the road 68-60. Then came Saturday’s instant classic against Uniontown, another upset, another underdog win, only this one came with a Hollywood ending.
The Bulldogs (13-11) are now the No. 8 seed in the Class 2A state tournament, where their reward is a David-vs.-Goliath quarterfinal at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Koch Arena against No. 1 seed Sterling, the undefeated defending state champion. The winner advances to Friday’s 5:30 p.m. semifinal at White Auditorium in Emporia, where the remainder of the tournament will be played.
But before Douglass could dream about taking down Sterling, it had to survive the kind of game — and atmosphere — people in town will be talking about for years.
“Man, I wish we could play every game with a crowd like that,” Cox said. “Both crowds were getting so into it. It really made the game feel so special.”
Douglass looked ready to seize the game in regulation behind sophomore Brody Rush, who delivered one clutch 3 after another. Rush buried three 3s in the fourth quarter alone and helped the Bulldogs build a 61-56 lead with 48 seconds remaining.
But Uniontown refused to go away. It answered with a three-point play. After Douglass split a pair of free throws to make it 62-59 with 18 seconds left, Uniontown drilled a game-tying 3 with six seconds to go.
Just like that, one more stop, one more free throw, one more bounce could have ended Douglass’ dream. Instead, it pushed the Bulldogs deeper into the storm.
The first overtime was a fistfight. Two baskets each. No one could find daylight for a clean winner. The tension only tightened.
Then the second overtime threatened to rip the game away from Douglass for good. Uniontown went ahead 73-68 with 58 seconds left. On a possession where Douglass absolutely had to score, the ball swung to Rush at the top of the key. He rose without hesitation and buried a 3 to cut the deficit to 73-71.
“I just knew that I really needed to hit that one,” Rush said. “It felt like it was going in, no matter what.”
Even then, Douglass still needed help, and it got it in the most dramatic way possible. Uniontown went to the line and missed two free throws. Then it grabbed the offensive rebound, got fouled again and missed two more.
Four straight misses.
Moore secured the rebound and Douglass called timeout with 28 seconds left and its season somehow still alive.
That was when Lawson made the boldest decision of his coaching career.
Foul trouble had gutted Douglass, which lost three starters and four players from its already-thin six-man rotation to disqualification. Those four — Rush (32), Ast (19), Bronsyn Knisley (15) and Justin West (2) — had accounted for 68 of the team’s 71 points.
That’s what convinced Lawson to tell his team to go for the win.
“It’s like when you’re in Vegas and you’re going to push all of your chips into the middle,” Lawson said. “We’re either going to win it or lose it right here.”
As the most experienced player left on the court, that burden landed on Cox, who until that moment had only one made field goal and three points all night.
“Really, I just tried to block out any negative stuff from my mind,” Cox said. “That kills my game whenever I think negatively. So I just kept thinking about how I can do this, I’ve done it before.”
With one dribble, one step-back and one shot, Cox turned a fantasy into the most important bucket in program history.
And when the final Uniontown heave missed as the buzzer sounded, all the frustration of winter turned into a single springtime release.
“We told them that it was going to take a tough group that will find a way to overcome adversity,” Lawson said. “They’re just a tight-knit group that really enjoys being around each other. I think that helps a ton.”
That bond carried Douglass through a seven-game losing streak, through a brutal schedule, through missed chances and foul-outs and double overtime. It carried the Bulldogs all the way to the moment no boys basketball team in school history had ever reached.
Now this team will be the one on the banner forever.
“It was such a surreal moment,” Lawson said. “That’s a moment that we’ll all remember for a long, long time. Guys who played in that game will probably remember it for the rest of their lives.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 7:03 AM.
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