Mikey Dixon (3), shown here against Salesianum’s Paul Brown last season, will lead Sanford at Slam Dunk to the Beach on Sunday and Monday.
LEWES – Sanford lost.
But the La Lumiere School of La Porte, Indiana – the nation’s No. 2-ranked boys high school basketball team – will remember the night it battled the little team from the little state for a long, long time.
Sanford went face-to-face with the giants for 36 minutes, taking the game to overtime on Monday night before finally falling 67-61 in the Slam Dunk to the Beach showcase at Cape Henlopen High.
“We’re disappointed,” Warriors coach Stan Waterman said. “But I’m extremely proud of the way they played, the way they represented our program and the state of Delaware. That’s the No. 2 team in the country, and we were that close to winning.”
La Lumiere (13-1) played most of the night with a front line measuring 6-foot-11, 6-10 and 6-7. The Lakers outrebounded Sanford 43-31, getting many of their points on putbacks after an initial miss.
“They were huge, and there’s a reason they’re the No. 2 team in the country,” Waterman said. “They’ve got all the pieces. They’ve got size, they’ve got shooters, they’ve got ballhandlers.”
But the scrappy Warriors more than held their own. Quinnipiac signee Mikey Dixon, a 6-2 senior, repeatedly charged down the lane into La Lumiere’s trees and finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds.
“We’re proud of each other,” Dixon said. “Coach is proud of us, I’m proud of my teammates. But we’re disappointed that we lost. We came that close to a good team.”
The Warriors (2-2), ranked second in Delaware, led 15-13 after one quarter, sending an early message when 6-8 Jacob Walsh dunked after having his initial shot blocked. But the Lakers’ height started to make the difference, as they scored on dunks, tip-ins and offensive rebounds to take a 33-25 lead at the half.
Walsh – Sanford’s only height – went to the bench with three fouls with 4:08 left in the third quarter. Somehow, the Warriors went on a run without him, scoring 12 of the next 16 points. Dixon bombed a 3-pointer from the right wing, turned a fast break into a three-point play and made a free throw to push Sanford ahead 42-40.
Walsh returned and scored a layup, a dunk and two free throws, and Dixon made two foul shots to give the Warriors their biggest lead, 53-45, with 4:42 to play.
“They went on runs, we went on runs,” Dixon said. “The game could have gone either way.”
La Lumiere turned it around with pressure, forcing two turnovers and scoring seven points in 17 seconds to tie it at 55 with 3:02 left.
“They didn’t get rattled,” Dixon said. “They stayed calm, poised, and they came back.”
Dixon missed the front end of a one-and-one with 42 seconds left, but the Lakers missed a point-blank shot at the buzzer to send the game into overtime tied at 57.
The turning point came early in OT. Walsh missed a dunk and fell to the floor, writhing in pain. The Lakers had a five-on-four advantage, and Brian Bowen made a 3-pointer for a 60-57 lead with 3:25 left. Walsh limped to the locker room with an ankle injury and did not return, but after the game Waterman said his big man appears to be OK.
But the Warriors couldn’t recover. Eighth-grader Jyare Davis – amazing all night with 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting – scored off his own miss to pull Sanford within 61-59 with 47.5 seconds to go. But James Banks – a 6-10 senior who has signed with Texas – dunked for La Lumiere with 36 seconds left and added two clinching free throws with 18.4 seconds remaining.
“That was a huge play,” Waterman said of Walsh’s injury. “But we had our chances in regulation. We had a five-point lead with a couple of minutes to go, and typically, we close those games out. We didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball.”
Walsh finished with 16 points. Bowen scored 14, Isaiah Coleman-Lands had 13 and Banks added 11 points and 11 rebounds for La Lumiere.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ