By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With 20 seconds to play in the sub-state championship game, the Solomon Gorillas boys basketball team trailed 10th-ranked Clifton-Clyde 45-50 on the Eagles home floor without the ball.
No one in the building believed that Solomon, a team that had never clinched a spot in the state tournament in its existence, had a prayer to pull off the impossible.
No one that is, except the Gorillas.
It started with a Makaen Hastings steal and score with an and-1 that the junior buried without a second thought.
48-50
A timeout and a second turnover led to Hastings at the cup with an opportunity to draw even which he powered through the contact for a second and-1 in just ten seconds of game time.
50-50
A free throw from the junior would give Solomon the lead in regulation and as Clifton-Clyde scrambled to throw the ball in for the final possession, Hastings swooped in, stole the inbound pass, and laid it in to give Solomon a three-point lead in the closing seconds.
53-50
In front of a shocked and horrified Eagles crowd, the Gorillas secured their first state tournament berth in program history with a team down one of its best seniors and a coach in his first year who has yet to blow out 24 candles.
“We talked all week about how this game would have ups and downs,” Solomon head coach Kyler Stein said. “Clifton-Clyde is a really good team and they went on some runs but we battled all game with them. We told the guys to believe, that we were going to find a way and we did just that.
The late heroics from Hastings were just the icing on the cake of a 32-point performance from the Gorilla's top scorer on the season.
“It’s the best game I’ve seen him play,” Stein said. “He’s an incredible athlete and he stepped up on the biggest stage. I can’t say enough good things about him tonight, I’m just glad he’s on our team and that we don’t have to coach against him.”
No matter what happens at the state tournament in Dodge City next week, this Gorillas team has already etched themselves into the record books as one of the best to ever play in Solomon, but the team isn’t content to be done just yet.
“It’s always nice to make history and this was very well deserved for this group,” Stein said. “This is great but we’re not satisfied and we have much bigger goals to accomplish.”
While Clifton-Clyde wraps up their season at 15-6, the Gorillas set their sights on the week to come, and will be in search not just of the team's first appearance at state, but for their first state tournament win in program history.
For continuing coverage of the Solomon boy’s basketball team at state stay tuned to the Salina Post.
Photo courtesy of Kyler Stein