Games like K-State's only happen in the movies

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Others stepped up. Marlies Gipson scored 16 points, grabbed eight rebounds. Danielle Zanotti scored 12, that’s a career high. Still, there was something missing. The team was broken up. They all wanted to win it for her.

“The shot was right on line,” Lehning said. “I saw it bouncing around, and I thought …”

Alison Lacey watched the shot. She grew up in Canberra, Australia, and came to high school in Iowa as a foreign-exchange student. She stayed to play her college basketball. She had been the one constant for the Cyclones all year; she led team in scoring and assists.

In the final seconds of overtime, with Iowa State down two points, with the clock ticking down, she got the ball, raced down court, saw a clear path to the basket. She ran as hard as she could. Lehning ran just as hard beside her. The two bumped. Lacey put up her shot just as the whistle blew. Foul. The ball went in. The score was tied. Lacey made the free throw. Iowa State led by one. She watched Lehning’s shot bounce around the rim, lean out, then lean back in …

“My heart dropped,” she said.

Basketball games end like this only in the movies. But in the movies you are rooting for one team. Few felt bad for the Indianapolis team that lost in “Hoosiers,” or the losers in “Glory Road.” This time, though, both teams were like the good guys in “Hoosiers.” Lehning’s shot hit the rim, rolled around once, rolled around a second time, tilted slightly toward the net, as if it would fall and then … it dropped out.

Iowa State won, and the players immediately raced on the court to hug Alison Lacey. Kansas State lost, and the players immediately felt tears roll down their faces. Lehning did not cry in public; instead she raced to the tunnel. When we saw her again, her eyes were red. She talked about how sometimes, in life, the shots just don’t go in.

The Iowa State players, talked about how sometimes in life, you catch a break.

And everyone understood they would have learned the opposite lesson had the basketball fallen into the hoop.

“There was a moment that flashed in my mind,” Fennelly said, “when I thought, ‘How am I going to talk to the kids about this one?’ It was as close as any shot I’ve seen.”

“If you coach long enough or play long enough, you live these moments,” Patterson said. “And as that ball was bouncing around the rim, I kept thinking, ‘Go in. Go in. Go in!’ And it went out.”

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To reach Joe Posnanski, call 816-234-4361 or send e-mail to jposnanski@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.