03/12/2006
By Brian Porter , Staff Writer

AUSTIN - There was something eerily similar to Thomas Hill about the way fate smiled Saturday evening on Plano. He had watched a Christian Laettner jumper from about the same distance in another overtime victory.

The previous one later resulted in winning him a national championship at Duke and the latter one got a championship for his longtime friend, Tom Inman.

"Why can't we win this, why can't we win this," Inman asked. "Why can't we be the best team in the state of Texas?"

The stripes on the basketball came to a stop atop the rim and rolled off. Then two successive tips fell outside the goal and Plano won its first boys basketball state championship with a rally to defeat Humble Kingwood, 60-58, at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.

"I'm selfish," Hill said. "We could have been here when I played at Lancaster. I wasn't going to miss my friend win this. I've seen these kids grow up since sixth or seventh grade."

Plano won the boys state championship eight days after Plano West won the girls state championship. The Plano ISD swept the state's basketball state titles after not having won a state basketball title prior to last week's victory.

The last time the Plano ISD won the boys and girls state championships in the same sport was in 2000, when the Plano West girls won their first soccer state championship and Plano won the boys state title.

"It would have been a great honor just to get both teams down here to Austin," Plano ISD athletics director Cliff Odenwald said. "To win both championships is unbelievable."

Plano won its 29th state championship. The school's last state title also came in 2000, if you're not counting the academic decathalon state championship two weeks ago.

"We weren't going to let this get away," Plano principal Doyle Dean said. "We kept fighting and kept coming back. This is the best year we've had as a district, I think. The Plano West girls were really talented and worked hard, so did our boys team."

Hill, who was on the floor when Laettner's floater fell in a double-overtime regional final for Duke in the what is remembered as the best NCAA tournament game of all time, finds the fate of the ball rolling off the rim as fitting.

"That's how evenly matched these teams were," Hill said. "It came down to inches and Plano got it."

The pair of tips were dangerously close to falling with the final two seconds running off the clock. Then the clock elapsed and the Plano student body sprinted onto the floor at the Frank Erwin Center for the first time.

"Our motto was, 'Let's make history,' or at least that was the unofficial motto," Plano post Eric Zastoupil said. "We kept saying, let's do something profound. We did. Well be remembered. We'll be back here in 25 years being remembered for this. We won the state title. We are the state champions."

Plano was down by 10 points at halftime and later in the fourth period. Guard John Roberson led the charge back with the final six Plano points of regulation and a charging call with five seconds left helped Plano force an overtime.

Plano scored first in the overtime and trailed just once. It wasn't without a test. Plano was 0-for-6 on free throws in the final 1:09. Then with 11 seconds left there was a chance it would not win the state title. Nic Wise, who was lethal from three-point range throughout the night, had a bullet of a three-pointer headed for the goal. It drew iron and began to spin. When it stopped, it rolled out and two tips failed to give Plano the championship.