HOLLISTER — The darlings of the Blue & Gold Tournament at the end of 2022 appear to also be destiny's darlings at the start of 2023.
Walker Loveland drilled a five-foot bank shot off an in-bounds, ally-oop pass with :03 remaining to lift Sparta to a 48-47 triumph against Hollister on Friday.
The Trojans executed '41 Walker' perfectly.
With Mason Letterman set to in-bound the ball under Sparta's basket, Dexter Loveland cut toward the hoop, followed by Jacob Lafferty also cutting to the basket. Letterman didn't lob the ball until Walker Loveland darted toward the hoop. Loveland caught the ball as he jumped and proceeded to hit his game-winner.
Incredibly, coach Deric Link only put '41 Walker' in Sparta's playbook at practice a day earlier.
"We thought maybe we were going to need it sometime," Link said.
"I was joking around before we ran the play in practice and said, 'It's going to be a lob to me, right?'" Loveland said. "(Link) said, 'Yeah, it is.' I was like, 'Oh, all right, let's do this, I guess.'
"Tonight was the right time and it worked out," he added. "When we ran it in practice, it didn't work as well. I couldn't make the shot.
"We were running that play in practice and couldn't get it down," Lafferty said. "We kept on running it and Walker couldn't catch the ball. It was pretty fun watching him finally catch it tonight."
It was nothing short of a brilliant call by Link. He shouted out the play call immediately after Hollister was whistled for its sixth foul with :04 remaining.
Link knew everyone else in the gym assumed Sparta would be trying to get the ball to Lafferty.
"'Dex' and Jake were decoys and then I slipped in from behind because nobody expected the ball to be thrown to me," Walker Loveland said. "On any in-bounds play, it doesn't matter what we run, everyone sinks toward Jake. Having him cut down the lane like that makes everybody think we're going to have the ball lobbed to him."
"My favorite thing about in-bound plays is everyone is all itchy every time I move," Lafferty said. "They move with me. It's kind of funny watching them. They're all worried about me and that opens up so much."
Not many fans on hand Friday had ever seen the in-bounds play executed with a game on the line, much less with a 5-foot-6 point guard receiving the ball. Link related he borrowed the play from a colleague.
"I will give credit to Jeff Dishman. When he was at Walnut Grove and I was at Fair Play, I saw him run it in a first-round District game and I've kept it in my head ever since," Link said. "I thought it was the right call tonight. I thought they were going to try to take away Dexter and Jake and we might be able to slip one over the top of them. We know as we go forward we're going to have to add some wrinkles because scouting reports are getting out."
Scouting reports should take note of Loveland's ability to deliver in the clutch.
"I'd never had a game-winning shot before, but had the next-best thing," he said.
Loveland made shots earlier this season that sent Sparta games into overtime against Marionville, Mountain Grove and Bolivar.
"Right guy for the job," Link said. "That kid is so mentally tough. The things the student section was saying tonight about him, saying that he's too short and how he was going to run through (Hollister players') legs, for him to come through at the end, kudos to him."
"Coach put a lot of trust in me and I appreciate that," Loveland said. "If he put his faith in me, I was going to do everything I can to make the shot."
The only other instance Sparta (11-3) led in the second half was on a Lafferty shot in the paint to make it 46-45 with :43 remaining.
Lafferty finished with 20 points against a Hollister front line with good length.
Garrett Snyder and the Tigers (11-3) had threatened to break away, while holding the Trojans to six points in the third quarter.
Steven Brown kept Sparta within striking distance by hitting a 3-pointer near the end of the third quarter. He added two more treys in the fourth quarter to cap his 14-point night.
"Tonight was his time to shine," Link said.
Walker Loveland and Lafferty both played the final five-plus minutes with four fouls.
Sparta was without its top perimeter shooter, Kavan Walker. As had been planned all season, Walker is at the University of Missouri Hospitals in Columbia for lung function tests. He has cystic fibrosis.
"Our kids were wanting to win so badly for him," Link said. "Tests went well for him today. Everything looks good. He'll have tests re-done next week. We'll have him back hopefully by next Friday."
For so many reasons, it was a commendable win for Sparta. The Trojans didn't fall into the trap of suffering a letdown following their momentous Blue & Gold Tournament run to the Blue Division final.
"Coach said for the rest of the year we need to play every game like it's part of the Blue & Gold," Walker Loveland said. "It's kind of hard to do when it's not the same atmosphere as the Blue & Gold. But you've got to find a way to dig deep and make it feel like a championship game every time.”
Sparta 48, Hollister 47
SPARTA (48) — W. Loveland 2 0-0 4, Brown 5 0-0 14, Letterman 1 0-0 2, Lafferty 9 2-4 20, D. Loveland 4 0-0 8.
HOLLISTER (47) — Wright 1 0-0 3, Teaster 0 1-2 1, Calovich 5 3-4 16, Snyder 8 4-5 22, Henry 1 0-0 3 Franks 1 0-0 2.
Sparta 16 9 6 17 - 48
Hollister 14 11 10 12 - 47
3-point goals - Brown 4, Calovich 3, Snyder 2, Wright, Henry.
