STARKE—It was perhaps a fitting end to a tumultuous and frustrating season for the Perlis High School boys’ basketball team.
Friday night, in the first round of the Cedar Valley District Tournament, Perlis surrendered the game and its entire season—without firing a single shot.
Trailing Starke by a point with less than a minute to go, the Blue Knights had the ball but failed to attempt a shot before time expired, falling 64-63 to their cross-valley rivals.
“We just passed it and passed it,” said Perlis coach Doug Way of the final 48 seconds. “There must have been nine, ten, eleven passes there. Maybe more. I’ll have to check the film. There was so much [frigging] passing. It was like a hot potato. I don’t want it, you take it! Everybody touched it, but nobody wanted to step up and take that big shot. It’s a thing now, a type of deal where I just want to throw up.”
Perlis took a timeout with 48 seconds remaining, another timeout with 21 seconds remaining, and its third and final timeout with nine seconds left.
“Each time, we drew up a good play,” said Way, whose daughter, Cassandra, was born in November without arms. “But I could see my guys were rattled. I could see the fear [in their faces and in their hearts]. These guys don’t have any guts. They have two arms but it’s a situation where they have no guts...”
