Findlay topples prep powerhouse for national crown

By Rob Miech

Sunday, April 5, 2009 | 6:43 p.m.

NORTH BETHESDA, Md. – Findlay College Prep coach Mike Peck flashed back to last year for just a few seconds Sunday in the championship game of the inaugural ESPN RISE National High School Invitational.

A year ago, the Pilots beat Fitchburg (Mass.) Notre Dame in overtime of a National Prep Championship semifinal in the Bronx, N.Y., but the victory left Peck with a sour taste.

Findlay turned it over 31 times. The game was wild. The Pilots lost their poise. Peck believed he didn’t do a proper job in guiding his team or keeping it calm. He has replayed it in his mind countless times.

Sunday, when Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy sliced a 17-point deficit to five in a dramatic fourth-quarter rally, Peck thought about the Notre Dame game.

“It felt like it, it resembled it,” Peck said. “But I knew it wasn’t going to get to that. I knew Cory Joseph and D.J. Richardson, and the rest of our guys, had the poise.

“We kept them calm. Look, don’t worry. We have timeouts. No reason to panic. Possession is way more valuable than timeouts. If you need one, call a timeout. We’ll regroup and execute.”

The Pilots did just that, without star guard Avery Bradley, down the stretch to defeat Oak Hill, 74-66, and claim their first national championship in just their third year of existence.

“I thought it would take a decade, not three years,” said Cliff Findlay, the founder of the program. “It’s exciting. The players and coaches put in so much hard work. It’s pretty emotional.”

A year ago, Findlay lost to Hargrave Military Academy by two points in the final in the Bronx. This year, the Pilots (33-0) toppled a titan in prep basketball.

The Warriors (40-1) have won seven mythical titles in 24 seasons under coach Steve Smith, whose incredible ledger slipped to 758-45 with the loss.

Peck is 65-1 in two seasons at Findlay.

There wasn’t much doubt about what was on the line Sunday in the Hanley Center at Georgetown Prep, since Findlay entered the game No. 1, according to USA Today’s national Super 25 rankings, and Oak Hill was No. 2.

The last time his team trailed someone by 17 points, Smith said, was in 2002, when Oak Hill went to Cleveland and got rattled by LeBron James.

“We had no answer for him,” Smith said of James.

Smith was nearly as effusive about Bradley, who led everyone with 20 points in the ESPN title game.

“He’s the best guard I’ve ever coached against,” Smith said. “He should have a great career.”

Bradley fouled out with 2 1/2 minutes left.

“We needed him out,” Smith said, “with about 4 1/2 minutes left.”

Peck had confounded Smith and the Warriors with a 3-2 zone defense – “that’s not a normal high school zone,” Smith said – which led to a 51-35 advantage for the Pilots early in the fourth quarter.

After both teams felt their way against their opponent, like heavyweight fighters, Peck went to the 3-2 and Smith shifted to a 2-3 zone.

Findlay broke it open in the third quarter with seven consecutive points by Joseph, which included a pair of 3-point shots, and a three-point play by Richardson.

Bradley hit a little jumper and a 3-pointer from the right side, and the Pilots had their first double-digit lead, at 45-35, with 2 1/2 minutes left in the quarter.

Joseph connected on a three-point play of his own, and Richardson swooped by mammoth Oak Hill center Keith “Tiny” Gallon for a reverse layup on the right side to make it 50-35 with 24 seconds left.

Gallon finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds, Pe’Shon Howard scored 19 and Lamont “Mo Mo” Jones tallied 16, on 7-for-22 shooting, for the Warriors.

Richardson ended the third quarter with an exclamation point by blocking Doron Lamb’s close attempt.

“That gave some momentum to our team,” Richardson said. “It pumped us up. It gave us energy.”

The Pilots needed it when Smith turned to a wild defense, pressing and trapping all over the backcourt, to try to spark a comeback in the fourth quarter.

“We had to make it a little crazy out there,” he said. It almost fueled an unbelievable comeback.

But Findlay, through some calm and choice words by Peck, kept its poise and two reserves played pivotal roles in stemming the tide.

After the Pilots beat Mountain State in a Friday quarterfinal, Bradley walked off the court with his arm around Issiah Grayson.

Of the eight Pilots, Grayson plays the least. He can get down on himself, Bradley said, so he was just trying to keep the 5-foot-9 senior guard positive.

When Bradley toyed with foul trouble Sunday, Grayson entered and provided a key three-point play that gave Findlay a 54-37 edge early in the fourth.

Bradley went back in, hit two free throws and a free-throw jumper to nudge his team’s lead to 62-50 with four minutes left, but then fouled out.

Grayson went back in and, when Oak Hill had eked to within 63-58, hit two free throws after getting fouled with 1:37 left that made the Pilots breathe easier.

“Avery came out and I held it down,” Grayson said. “When I shot those free throws, Avery told me to take my time. I didn’t worry about it. We got it.”

Junior power forward Tristan Thompson, the 6-9 lefty who landed on Peck’s doorstep in February after he was dismissed from Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s, hit all four free throws he attempted over the next 32 seconds.

Then he followed Richardson’s errant jumper with a hard slam dunk to make it 71-61 with 61 seconds left.

Then he capped the victory in a big way with a break-away jam with 13 seconds left, to make it 74-63.

“What more can a teenage kid ask for?” Thompson said. “Winning a national championship and taking down a powerhouse program, that’s epic. That last jam sealed it. We knew it would be a dream come true.

“I’m speechless.”