Game Report: Laney vs Morgan County (state tourney semifinals)

My blog post below may read like Morgan County's Tookie Brown was solely responsible for Saturday's win.  Not so.  Morgan County has a great team.  Laney too.  Hopefully my video report above does both teams justice.

A reader of this blog and I have been texting since Laney fell to Morgan County 68-62 Saturday in the semifinals of the state playoffs.  The question I have been asked is "how can one player beat a team like Laney?"  The answer is easy.  No matter what the upside projecting recruiting experts think, when it comes to winning basketball games, there is no better high school player in our state than Morgan County's Tookie Brown, especially when he has a second half like Saturday when he scored 32 points.  My good friend Keenan Mann's remark gives some insight into how impressive a feat that is:  "That is literally one bucket every minute for a whole half."  An unbelievable performance.

Before Saturday I believed the only just outcome for coach Harris's team would be a state championship.  It is no secret I am a huge fan of the program.  After watching the team's 29 game winning streak and the way the guys accomplished it with stunning class, I couldn't stomach the thought of the pain they would go through if they were to come up short.  And honestly it took a little while to get over the pain I felt thinking about the pain they were likely feeling after Saturday's loss.

Laney won 29 straight games against the toughest
schedule an area team has ever played.

But the text conversation with my friendly reader helped to clarify my thoughts.  I now understand there was always more than one "just outcome" for our beloved Wildcats.  And Saturday's outcome, the temporarily more painful one, is a true testament to the team's greatness that the only thing that could derail the Wildcats was what had to be the best performance ever by one of the greatest high school players our state has seen.

No matter that the final game of Laney's season was a loss.  I still believe this team is as great as any our area has ever seen.  And state title or not, there is only one other team I believe may have been as great.

The video above is obviously the last game report of the 2014-2015 season featuring Laney's boys team.  Congratulations to the Wildcats for having a historically great season.