It all seems so magical now, that impossible tournament run almost 20 years ago.
For three weeks, Mansfield Senior took its fans on an improbable postseason ride that culminated with an appearance in the Division I Final Four in March of 2005.
The architect of that thrill ride, former Senior High coach Gregg Collins, will be inducted into the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in April — and deservedly so.
Mansfield Senior was Collins’ second stop in Richland County. He led Lexington to Division II state championships in 1989 and 1991 before taking over for Ron Hetler at Senior High in 1996.
By the time I took over the boys basketball beat for the 2000-2001 season, Collins had the Tygers rolling. He piloted Senior High to the Final Four in 1999 — with an assist from current coach Marquis Sykes and eventual NBA draft pick Ricky Minard — and Sweet 16 berths in 2002 and 2004.
Expectations were soaring going into the 2004-05 season, but that wasn’t unusual back then. As Sykes pointed out recently, “the standard is the standard at Mansfield Senior.”
Adding to the excitement, Senior High moved into its new building in the fall of ’04. While the new Pete Henry Gym wasn’t as intimidating to opponents as its predecessor, it was new and shiny and coaches and players alike took pride in it. It would be almost four full seasons before the Tygers lost a home game.
That 04-05 season got off to an inauspicious start as the Tygers dropped a 71-60 neutral-site game to Cincinnati Princeton in Columbus in the season opener. Senior High wouldn’t lose again for the better part of four months.
The eighth-ranked Tygers took a 19-1 record into the postseason and met Ashland in the sectional final at Willard. The Arrows knocked off Marion Harding in overtime in their tournament opener.
Senior High raced to a 22-10 first-quarter advantage and never led by fewer than seven points in a 64-47 win.
Jonathon Avery, Mansfield Senior’s wiry 6-foot-5 center, scored a team-high 21 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting performance from the field. That wasn’t unusual for Avery, who went on to a brilliant career at Division I IUPUI in Indiana. Avery was a career 70 percent field goal shooter during a brilliant career in which he scored 984 points.
The Tygers overwhelmed Tiffin Columbian in the district semifinal at Willard the following week, setting up a showdown against ninth-ranked Lima Senior in the district final at Ohio Northern.
It was a game fans in both Mansfield and Lima had been looking forward to since the Tygers dispatched the Spartans in the district final a year earlier. Lima Senior boasted a wildly talented backcourt that included a pair of future Division I college players in Dathan Lyles (Cal State Northridge) and Travis Walton (Michigan State).
The game was tied 20-20 at the half and 22-22 early in the third before Senior High began to pull away. An Avery dunk off a Mel Sutton assist sparked a 9-0 run and the Tygers cruised to a 63-46 win. Lyles and Walton combined for 25 points, but the duo needed 27 combined shots to get there. Lyles was 5-for-11 from the field, while Walton was 6-for-16.
Avery led a balanced Senior High attack with 14 points. He was joined in double-figures by Javario Byrd (12), Sutton (11) and Derrick Boyd (10).
The road got tougher for the Tygers in the Sweet 16. First up was Lakewood St. Edward and talented freshman Delvon Roe in the regional semifinals.
Roe, who would also go on to play at Michigan State, managed nine points while Avery scored a career-high 29 on 14-of-18 shooting. His high-flying performance included three fourth-quarter dunks in the 76-55 rout.
The win sent Senior High into the Elite Eight, where fourth-ranked Solon awaited. The Comets were led by Ohio State recruit Dallas Lauderdale.
Solon built a 41-32 lead through three quarters and led 49-39 midway through the fourth before Senior High mounted a comeback that is still talked about to this day.
The Comets led 52-50 after Lauderdale hit the first of two free throws with just 13 seconds remaining. Lauderdale missed the second and Boyd grabbed the rebound. The ball eventually found its way back to Boyd, who launched a high-arcing 3-pointer over hard-charging Solon defender Steve Valentino as the clocked race toward zero.
Valentino was whistled for the foul as Boyd’s rain-maker fell out of the Savage Hall rafters and through the hoop to give Senior High a 53-52 lead with just four seconds to play. Boyd misfired on the ensuing free throw, but the Tygers forced a turnover in the closing seconds to secure the regional title and a trip to the state semifinals.
Boyd’s impossible trey — and the ensuing roar of the Senior High crowd seated immediately behind the media’s courtside seats — is permanently seared into my memory. There’s an unwritten rule in sports writing: there’s no cheering on press row. I broke that rule on that cold Saturday night in Toledo.
The state semifinals brought another major-college recruit in the form of junior Raymar Morgan of top-ranked Canton McKinley. Morgan, just like Roe and Walton, would star at Michigan State and enjoyed a long pro career overseas.
The clock struck midnight on Senior High as the Bulldogs, coached by Shelby product Dave Hoover, built a 41-26 halftime advantage and held on for a 73-61 win. The Tygers cut their deficit to 65-60 on Leaunte Carter’s 3-pointer with 1:43 remaining, but were outscored 8-1 the rest of the way in a game that was closer than the final score suggested.
Canton McKinley would go on to win the state title the following day, beating Cincinnati St. Xavier in the final. It was the first of McKinley’s back-to-back championships.
Collins led the Tygers back to the regional tournament the following year — Senior High’s sixth Sweet 16 berth in eight seasons — before stepping down after the 2007-08 season.
He was 235-49 in 12 seasons, good for a winning percentage of .827. Collins-led Mansfield Senior teams won 20 or more games six times in 12 seasons and never won fewer than 15 games, all during an era when there were 20 games in the regular season.
Collins picked up his 300th career win in the regular season finale in 2005, his 16th season as a head coach. I talked to several of his assistant coaches about the milestone and longtime lieutenant Jeff McCoy told me something that has stuck with me ever since.
“Gregg Collins will take an average player and make him good and a good player and make him great,” McCoy said at the time. “It’s all about preparation. By the time we get to Friday night, our kids know everything the other team was going to do.
“Nobody prepares better than Gregg Collins.”
It’s one of many reasons why the OHSBCA Hall of Fame will open its doors to Collins this spring. It’s an honor long overdue.