26
Lutheran Lions Enrollment: 181 Class: 2A Score: 34.06 Last Year: 22 (-4)
27
Thompson Valley Eagles Enrollment: 1,377 Class: 4A Score: 33.96 Last Year: 26 (-1)
28
Monarch Coyotes Enrollment: 1,535 Class: 5A Score: 33.70 Last Year: 64 (+36)
29
Cedaredge Bruins Enrollment: 284 Class: 3A Score: 33.46 Last Year: 168 (+139)
30
Fairview Knights Enrollment: 2,104 Class: 5A Score: 32.95 Last Year: 55 (+25)
Limon inched back, milking most possessions for good shots. The lead dwindled to 30-22 at halftime. If these kids thought the last halftime speech Dick Katte would ever give them was going to be full of reassurance, they hadn’t been paying attention. In their last game, they were letting him down. “You played almost a perfect six minutes of team basketball and the last 10 minutes I saw selfishness, saw players hollering at each other. That’s not the way we play. We’re shooting shots we shouldn’t shoot. Swing the ball, let it go inside out and shoot, not bomb from the outside. There is no discipline. You did it so perfectly, then all of a sudden you played into their hands and you didn’t play the way we talked about,” he said, less with rancor than disappointment. “We have at least four offensive fouls. Somehow, you have to get a little smarter. You have to pull up and use the blackboard.” The storybook version would be that the Crusaders righted themselves and regained control early in the second half. But they didn’t. Limon’s confidence grew. They made shots and bumped Christian’s cutters off their paths. The lead dwindled to a single point when Kroshus was fouled underneath. He had two shots and missed them both. Fifteen seconds later, Limon’s Chandler Dobe hit a step-back jumper from the baseline and Limon owned a 45-44 lead. At the most dangerous moment of the season, with Limon streaking and Christian reeling, the Crusaders pushed the ball up-court and Kroshus caught it on the left sideline. You need to know this about Connor Kroshus: He’s a 45 percent shooter, averaging more than one three-pointer per game and Christian’s second-leading rebounder. However, this had not been a good shooting week for him. He was onefor-seven from three-point range against Sanford and Lutheran, and had tossed up a couple of airballs. The Events Center can be a tough place to shoot. A black curtain hangs behind one end of the court and a trio of three-point lines (high school, college, pro) ring the perimeter. While Kroshus’ teammates were standing in a breezeway waiting to take the court before the championship game, he was in the hallway, flipping the ball off his fingertips against a concrete arena wall just above an exit sign. Which is not to mention those two free throws he’d missed the last time he touched the ball. Still, there are moments when preparation, opportunity and confidence conspire to intersect at the perfect time. Athletes sense them, which is why Connor Kroshus squared to the basket and lofted a
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shot from behind the correct three-point line that nestled into the net to give the Crusaders a 47-45 advantage. As painstakingly as Limon had erased their lead, the Crusaders had dramatically regained it. The student section behind Christian’s bench, many of the fans equipped with Katte facemasks, erupted. The coach raised his hands, exhorting defense. Limon missed. Herren penetrated, found Kroshus on the baseline for a layup and a four-point lead. Limon cut it to two late and some missed Crusader free throws extended the drama until Kroshus hit the first of two free throws with 1.8 seconds left for the final 54-50 score. His players lifted Katte aloft and carried him to the sideline. After celebrating, they repaired to the locker room for the last time where the coach led his team in prayer. “It was just great to play before all these people, to be a force that unified them for Denver Christian. These guys showed their heart, their spirit, their love for one another and for me as their coach, I thank you for that. Bless each one of us as we go on our way now for life after basketball. I pray that the rest of the year may be a good one for all of us. To Your name be the glory, in Jesus name. A-MEN.” In the 1,109th game of his career, Dick Katte coached his team literally until the last second. A guy with a clipboard can’t ask for much more. “It doesn’t get any better than that. They challenged you. We had them down and they didn’t go away,” he said. “If I was going to go out, it was just great to finish it with you. Thank you. We’re going to celebrate in a lot of different ways, but this was really satisfying. In the bottom of your heart, this is what you dreamed of. Now you did it. Without any losses. Wow.” For his part, Kroshus said he never hesitated to take the game-changing shot. “Not at all. I was going up. By the third day, you get adapted to (the shooting background). Today in warm-ups, they had the right distance,” he said. Just curious; did he miss the last free throw on purpose to run out the clock? “You could say that,” he said with a wry grin. The Crusaders crowd cheered each player as he left the locker room and roared when Katte emerged. After the well-wishers trickled away, the coach, his wife and their son, Keith, who played on Christian’s last undefeated team in 1978, walked across a dark parking lot. The coach slid the big gold ball trophy into the back seat of his car, and he and Lorraine drove away with The Last Game in their rearview mirror.