‘Never-quit’ Douglass rallies from down 7 in final minute to win district title in OT
Frederick Douglass hadn’t yet had the season it had envisioned going into the boys’ 42nd District Tournament finals at Bryan Station High School on Friday night.
The Broncos entered January with a 5-9 record, suffering injuries and other setbacks along the way. The two-time defending district champs were a No. 3 seed going into the postseason and needed a fourth-quarter comeback against Bryan Station in the semifinals to earn their spot against top-seeded Henry Clay in the championship game.
It’s only fitting that Douglass had to battle back once more, overcoming a seven-point deficit with less than a minute to play for a 57-54 overtime victory and the five-year-old school’s third straight district crown.
“Everybody wants to be good early, and we struggled early,” Frederick Douglass Coach Jason Moseley said. “But it’s not about being good early, especially in the state of Kentucky. You need to be good in late February and March.”
Douglass looked very good to start against Henry Clay, controlling most of the first half and pushing the advantage to 12 points on the first basket of the second.
But Henry Clay erased that cushion over the next five minutes by going on a 15-1 run capped by Kanye Henderson’s three-pointer to put the Blue Devils up 37-35 with 3:08 left in the third quarter.
It was Henry Clay’s turn to dominate as the Blue Devils (24-8) pushed their advantage to seven points, 51-44, with 52 seconds to play.
What happened next was a whirlwind.
“To be honest, it happened so fast, I can’t tell you who tied the ball game up,” Moseley said. “We got three big steals and three scores.”
Douglass forced two turnovers and got an offensive rebound and put-back over the final seconds to be precise — seven straight points on a three-pointer by Leighton Harris, a mid-court steal and layup by Tylon Webb and a full-court trap by Harris and Aveion Chenault that yielded a Chenault steal, a Harris shot from the baseline and a Kai Simpson tip-in to finish it.
Simpson’s game-tying put-back made the score 51-51 with four seconds left.
Henry Clay took a three-point lead to start overtime on another Henderson three-pointer, but Douglass would show its heart again with offensive rebounds that helped it take a 55-54 lead with 22 seconds left in the extra period. Simpson stole the ball to thwart Henry Clay’s possession with 13 seconds left and Chenault, a freshman, nailed two free throws for the final margin.
“It feels great, more so for those kids, because everybody counted them out,” Moseley said. “And they worked hard every day. They never quit. They took whatever I threw at them and they said ‘yes sir.’ And they fought. And tonight is a true testament of what this team is about.”
Simpson and Armelo Boone led the Broncos (17-14) with 13 points each. Henderson led all scorers with 24 points for Henry Clay. Aziel Blackwell added 10 points.
Both teams move on to next week’s 11th Region Tournament, and Douglass will host a first-round game as a district champ before the event moves on to Eastern Kentucky University’s McBrayer Arena for the semifinals and finals.
Moseley likes his team’s chances.
“I’ve got a group of kids that are resilient,” Moseley said. “And I said all year when we finally got our whole team, we were going to be a dangerous basketball team.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 12:18 PM.
