Storybook season comes to an end for Harris, Lexington boys
The storybook ending was not to be but that does not take away from the magical season Lexington put together.
The Wildcats bowed out of the Class 5A playoffs with a 47-42 loss to Berkeley in the Lower State championship and with it comes the end of Bailey Harris’ legendary 32-year coaching career.
Harris emerged from the postgame locker room with tears in his eyes and gave his wife, Beth, a long embrace before addressing the assembled media.
“It’s always tough at the end of a season,” Harris said. “I don’t think I’ve ever ended a season without crying my eyes out. You hate it for the seniors (and) I’m a senior this time too. I just told them I don’t know if I could have gone out and picked 14 guys from all over the state that I would have rather gone to war with than that bunch right there.”
Lexington went undefeated in the regular season and was 29-0 coming into the matchup with the Stags. It’s the first time in Harris’ career he had been undefeated this late in the season, but the Wildcats couldn’t keep the bigger Berkeley squad off the boards to extend the season one more game.
It was close from the outset. The biggest lead by either team was seven points.
The difference turned out to be the Stags’ (26-1) advantage inside. Lexington never found an answer for Ishan White, a 6-7 bruiser who was a matchup nightmare. The Wildcats don’t have a player over 6-2 in the regular rotation and that allowed White to get free for 22 points.
Berkeley stretched a 27-25 halftime lead to 37-31 entering the fourth quarter on the strength of scoring all 10 of their third-quarter points off of offensive rebounds.
“We were out-manned at almost every spot,” Harris said. “We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds on the inside but it’s not because we didn’t battle and fight for it. We just couldn’t contain them in there. They’re where they are for a reason.”
White scored six straight points on two dunks and two free throws to give the Stags a 45-37 lead with 1:40 remaining but the Wildcats had one final push in them.
Mason Carver, who led the Wildcats with 17 points, got it back to five with 1:10 remaining. The Wildcats had three good looks from three and couldn’t get one to fall.
Bradley Foulks scored with 1.1 seconds remaining to make it 45-42 but Trevur Smalls made two free throws to salt it away and send Berkeley to its first state championship game appearance in the modern era.
“We had two or three looks to cut it to a two-point game in the last 15 or 20 seconds and one of those goes down, you get a time out and it could have been different,” Harris said. “We battled it to the end.”
B – Ishan White 22, Smalls 8, Meggett 7, Fordham 7, Chisolm 2, Butler 1. L – Mason Carver 17, Bradley Foulks 11, Edwards 6, Long 4, Green 2, Corley 2.
This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 10:05 PM.