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Stakes of the Game
Chapter Ten: Don't Shoot, Don't Shoot! Against Lake Roosevelt, he didn't want his guards, Weg and Kok, to go any closer to the basket than the free-throw line except for an uncontested layup. That way, they'd be able to get back to defend against Lake Roosevelt's vaunted fast break. The rest of the team was all but forbidden to shoot from further than five feet away from the basket. The coach's philosophy was simple: No missed shots equals no rebounds equals no Lake Roosevelt fast break. He wanted the Raiders to be retrieving the ball from the bottom of the net. And the rest of the game plan was essentially this: Let Dykstra operate. "We had a couple of plays where we were running guys back and forth on the baseline, and we ran those to death," recalls Kok. "Glen started to run variations off those two or three plays, and basically made it up as he went along. And the rest of us tried to keep up." And they had to keep up, and keep alert -- because if they were ever open, Dykstra would find them. Over the previous two nights, he had found them often enough to account for 21 baskets -- and, of course, 21 assists. "This was two years before people had heard of Larry Bird or Magic Johnson; people just hadn't seen passing like that," Kok says. "Maybe no one else -- including the guy who was open -- knew he was open at that particular time and place, but Glen would. I had pretty good court vision, too, but no one ever noticed it because I was always on the same court with him." Against Lake Roosevelt, Dykstra was all over that court, compiling 25 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists as the Lyncs, employing their close-to-the-vest game plan, maintained a slim lead for most of the night. Albert Timmer more than held his own inside, manhandling 6-foot-5 Raiders star Jeff Loe with his superior strength and outscoring him 23-21. The most surprising contributions came from the seldom-used Jansen and Bratt, who combined for a dozen points. Most of Bratt's eight points came from within an arm's length of the basket, where the depth perception obscured by his one blind eye was not a factor. With 47 seconds remaining, Kok fouled out. Timmer was also one foul from being gone, which would have meant the DeHoog and Terpstra would have to do -- for the sake of the principle the school was trying to make -- precisely what they didn't want to do. They would have to turn to the suspended six. Though he had no choices to make on this particular substitution, DeHoog took every bit of the time allotted. And he went down the line and told two of the other six -- VanderYacht and Berendsen -- to be ready. The resulting Lake Roosevelt free throws from Kok's foul trimmed Lynden Christian's tenuous lead to 51-49. The Lyncs worked the clock down, trying to keep from being fouled and, more importantly, making sure they didn't turn the ball over in the game's waning seconds. But with barely 20 ticks left, Bratt found himself about 10 feet from the basket and no one to pass to. The Raiders cut off the passing lanes and were closing in, either to tie the ball up or foul him. Bratt turned to the basket and, for a brief moment, considered taking the shot, something certain to make the coaches -- and perhaps half the fans in attendance -- scream in protest. Of all of the people in the building, perhaps only one who wasn't nervous about Bratt taking the shot. "He was running a set that he and I had run the year before in junior varsity all the time," Kok says. "And in junior high he'd just turn around and make that shot." Sure enough, double-teamed and about to be tied up with 19 seconds left, Bratt went up. The reaction on the bench and among the Lynden Christian fans was almost comical. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! GREAT SHOT!" Bratt's basket iced the game, and when the buzzer went off ending the Lyncs' 53-51 upset triumph, Weg began hopping around the floor like a boy on a pogo stick, whooping and hollering. In the locker room afterward, DeHoog was so moved by his team's performance that he was almost overcome with emotion. "I'm so proud of these boys, I can't talk," he told reporters. With Royal City -- as Royal High School was then known -- having knocked off South Bend in the other semifinal, the Lyncs had just beaten the heir apparent to the crown. With six players.
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