Legacy of Derek Hood’s three-pointer in Central’s 1995 playoff win over Tyronn Lue and Raytown lives on

Let’s just call it what it was — the most unforgettable shot from arguably the most memorable game in Kansas City area high school basketball history.

Twenty years ago this week — March 4, 1995 — Central and Raytown clashed in a Missouri Class 4A boys state quarterfinal game at a sold-out, jam-packed Municipal Auditorium. It was a game that all of Kansas City wanted to see. At stake was a trip to the state tournament.

In a legendary venue where the noise was deafening from tip-off to final buzzer, Central’s Derek Hood hit a clutch three-pointer with eight seconds left in regulation that tied the game at 64. It set the stage for Central’s dramatic 80-73 double-overtime victory against the previously unbeaten Blue Jays.

It was an extraordinary three-pointer in a decisive game. So what is Hood’s recollection of the game?

“It’s a vague memory. I’ve played so many games since then,” says Hood, a junior high basketball coach in Richardson, Texas. “It’s like a blur to me.”

That night might be a little fuzzy to Hood, but two decades later that instant classic still resonates with Kansas City area high school hoops fans.

“I’ve heard people say it was the best game in Kansas City,” says Terry Nooner, who suited up for Raytown that night.

“The whole city had been waiting for this game,” said Raytown player Tyronn Lue, who went on to play at Nebraska, played in the NBA and is now associate head coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Former Central coach Jack Bush, now 91 years old, says: “I still have it on tape. I show it to my grandkids.”

The magical game featured a little bit of everything. Nearly 11,000 fans jammed into an auditorium intended to seat about 10,000. Fans at the door wanting to get in were turned away. A smallish Raytown team that featured only one player 6 feet 2 or taller. Two marquee players — Hood and Lue — that went on to bigger hoops spotlights. One dramatic three-pointer that turned up the frenzy at the end of regulation, and two overtimes.

“So many people were there who were not even associated with either school. People were cheering for both teams. There were lots of oohs and aahs. It was electric,” said Mark Nusbaum, who coached the Liberty boys basketball team at the time.

The remarkable game even lives on, 20 years later, on social media.

“I’ve gone back and forth on Facebook about that game with Terry (Nooner) and Tyronn (Lue),” says JoVonn Jefferson, who played for Central that night. “We talk about that all the time.”

From the game’s tip-off, the pace of play was fast and furious.

Hood got it rolling with a dunk. Raytown missed its first five shots until Lue put on a display, including three-pointers from NBA range. Lue scored 19 of his 30 points in the first half.

“I remember picking up Tyronn. My feet were on the three-point line guarding him,” says Central’s Donnell Fletcher. “We’re looking at each other. I’m shaking my head like ‘You’re not going to shoot that.’ He pulled the trigger. I thought ‘It’s going to be a long night.’”

Raytown’s pressure defense led to 12 Central turnovers in the first half. The Blue Eagles made 58 percent of their field-goal attempts, yet Raytown held a 35-34 halftime advantage.

“We were full-court man, play as hard as we can,” says then-Raytown coach Mark Scanlon, who now coaches at O’Hara and has 600-plus career victories.

What followed after halftime definitely was edge-of-your-seat stuff.

Although Raytown made only one of its first six shots in the third quarter, the Blue Jays led by six entering the fourth quarter and were ahead 64-60 with 15 seconds remaining in regulation. Central’s Jefferson got fouled after grabbing an offensive rebound and hit one of two free throws, cutting Raytown’s lead to three points.

On Jefferson’s missed second free throw, Central’s Kenny Moore corralled the rebound and got fouled with 13 seconds left. He misfired on the front end of a one-and-one, igniting a chaotic frenzy.

Jefferson got his hand on the rebound, as did Raytown’s Ian Losasso, before it skidded backward into Hood’s clutches. Behind the arc, right of the free-throw line, Hood launched his historic three-pointer. It was just the third three-pointer he’d attempted all season, having missed the other two.

COUNT IT!

Hood’s basket made it 64-all.

“Coach Bush didn’t like me shooting threes. It was just one of those things. I just kept playing. You don’t stop playing,” says Hood, who finished the game with 33 points.

“To do it in that atmosphere — greatest shot I’d ever seen,” says Hood’s teammate Jefferson, who contributed 24 points.

After Hood’s three-pointer, Raytown’s Brandon Weis, as the crowd noise reached extreme levels, pushed it to the other end. He pulled up on the right side of the lane.

Time expired. The scoreboard still had Raytown ahead by one point. But in actuality, the score was tied.

“If you watch the video, look at my reaction,” Jefferson says. “I thought we lost.”

Weis, who scored 16 points, said: “There was confusion all over the place.”

The game’s basketball officials, Jeff Holloway and Larry Kindle, approached the scorer’s table.

“I knew in my head we were tied,” Holloway said.

Once it was certain that Hood indeed had tied the game, the drama moved to overtime.

Raytown entered the extra period shorthanded. Nooner and Cortez Groves (who combined for 15 points) already had fouled out.

In the first overtime, Raytown led by four points, but Hood’s dunk with 15 seconds remaining tied it. Lue drove the lane as time expired, but had the ball swatted away as he entered the paint.

Central took charge in the second overtime and held off the Blue Jays, who got to within a point, 74-73, on Weis’ baseline jumper with 1 minute, 34 seconds left. Central, which made just 11 of 30 free throws, scored the game’s last six points and their fans stormed the court.

“I couldn’t find Tyronn to shake hands afterward,” Fletcher says. “It was so crazy.”

Lue scored just one basket after halftime, that being a layup in the first overtime. To this day, the game is painful for Lue to recall.

“You know what, it’s just a bad thought,” Lue says. “We were one game from state. We were 27-0. It was a tough way to go out.”

Bush, who won 799 games in a 52-year coaching career and a state title at Central in 1979, wasn’t stunned that his squad prevailed against Raytown.

“I give all the credit to the guys. They were dedicated. No excuses were made. They basically all had the same idea — to come out on top,” Bush says.

Scanlon, meanwhile, said there were no tears in the Raytown locker room.

“The guys were just mad, which is the way you like it,” he said. “I believe if we had won, we would have won state.”

But it was Central that advanced to the Missouri state tournament, where the Blue Eagles lost by one point to St. Charles West in a semifinal.

As for Lue, who eventually was an early entry first round NBA draft pick, there was a similar encounter with Hood years later.

“The crazy part about it is that Derek Hood ended my high school and college careers,” said Lue. “When I was at Nebraska, we played Arkansas (Hood’s team) my junior year in the NCAA Tournament and we lost.”

There was almost as much drama outside Municipal Auditorium as inside.

Holloway’s job as referee that night was to observe what happened on the court. On that night, he noticed something intriguing beyond the court’s borders.

“When the game was ongoing, people kept showing up. There were more people there at the end than when it started,” he said.

It never should have been that way. Municipal Auditorium seated approximately 10,000 fans. For the Central-Raytown game, the total was near 11,000.

“Some leftover tickets from (the previous) Wednesday’s sectionals were sold by mistake for Saturday,” says Darwin Rold, site manager for the Missouri State High School Activities Association. “People were standing in the aisles. Some of them were upset when we eventually shut it (ticket sales) down.”

That explains how the game was oversold and how there were actually more fans inside than the established allotment. The scene drew a visit from the fire marshal and police.

“The situation didn’t get out of hand,” Rold says.

Weis, now a teacher at Raytown Central Middle School, says, “People were trying to sneak in the back door just to get in.”

Municipal Auditorium, site of more NCAA Final Fours (nine) than any other venue, was the perfect spot for the game, according to Neil Harwell, who handled play-by-play duties for American Cablevision that night.

“Being at Municipal added to the buzz.” Harwell said. “You were downtown. There’s so much history in that building. To have the game there made it extra special.”

A closer look reveals some interesting facts about the Raytown vs. Central showdown, such as how the showdown at one time seemed improbable.

In the years leading up to the clash, key players in the game seemed destined for other schools. Hood, for example, never intended to go to Central. What if Lue hadn’t moved from Mexico, Mo.? Nooner started his career at Lincoln Prep, then moved to Raytown, just two blocks from the Raytown South school district and Bud Lathrop’s Raytown South Cardinals.

Jefferson got cut as a freshman and quit the Central team as a sophomore. Jefferson, who grew from 6-1 to 6-6, then became a force his senior season alongside Hood.

“My first choice was Lincoln Prep. My stepfather went to Lincoln,” says Hood, a McDonald’s All-America player in 1995, as were familiar names such as Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury. Hood instead landed at Central.

If this was fate, it also was dominance. Between the two teams, Central and Raytown had lost only three games entering their state quarterfinal. Raytown entered the game 27-0 and Central was 25-3. But don’t dare consider Central the weak link that night.

“They had the inside game, they had the outside game. What else did you need?” says former East High School coach Ken Speese.

The Blue Eagles featured a tall, lanky lineup anchored by Hood and Jefferson, with co-stars such as Jeffrey Powell, Jabron Jackson, Montell Jones and Vernon Coates.

Fletcher, who now works and coaches basketball at Raytown Middle School, recalls the Central team’s unity.

“Any time you saw one of us, you saw six of us,” Fletcher says.

Raytown, meanwhile, nearly qualified for the 6-foot-and-under league. Groves, who played at K-State and now owns his own business and trains youth players, said: “We were all short, just trying to hang with these giants.”

Raytown drenched many an opponent in a sea of points that season. The Blue Jays, whose philosophy was layups and treys, scored 100 or more points five times. Nusbaum, who had a fever the night Raytown torched his Liberty team 113-63, felt the sting.

“You know you’re in trouble when your opponent scores more points than your temperature,” Nusbaum says.

Nooner, who played at Kansas and is an assistant women’s coach at Alabama, said his Raytown team was popular.

“We signed autographs. People made us cookies, brownies. We were like rock stars,” Nooner said, “but once it was time for the jump ball, we were like piranhas.”

Raytown’s student body included diehard fans that called themselves Bleacher Creatures. Among them was Billy Gillespie, who designed a T-shirt with caricatures of Raytown’s team.

“Those guys, to us, were like the Beatles,” Gillespie said.

Twenty years later, the Central-Raytown classic still reverberates.

Nooner says he and Lue watched a video of the game a few years ago at Lue’s home.

“It was awful,” Nooner said.

Through the years, Time Warner Cable SportsChannel has shown replays of the game.

“If I had a dollar for every time somebody says they’ve watched it, I’d be rich,” Moore says. “I haven’t watched it. I know the outcome.”

Holloway says, “Most memorable game I ever officiated.”

Jefferson, who played at Cleveland State and is now a coach and special education teacher in Georgia, has attempted to coax his former teammates and Raytown players into recreating the game in some fashion. Not everybody could participate even if it did happen. Central’s Kevin Osler, who helped guard Lue, died nine years ago.

Jefferson sums it up this way: “To me, it was the greatest game in Missouri high school history.”

This story was originally published March 7, 2015 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Legacy of Derek Hood’s three-pointer in Central’s 1995 playoff win over Tyronn Lue and Raytown lives on."