RICHMOND—The scene in the Siegel Center was as wild and crazy as the Panthers’ dreams, and those dreams came true March 13 when Potomac Falls came from behind to upend Broadway 69-64 in a two-overtime thriller to win the Division 4 state title.

The Panthers are state champions in their first trip to a state tournament. It is the first state title in boys’ basketball ever captured by a Loudoun school.

“They’re what I always dreamt a program would be, from the time I was about 10,” stammered an emotional Jeff Hawes, who has been Potomac Falls’ coach for the program’s 13 years. “They go hard every day. They get along ... These kids never cease to amaze me. They find a way to get it done.”

The first half was not promising, as the Panthers shot poorly and allowed Broadway numerous second chances. The Fighting Gobblers took a 29-23 lead into halftime.

The deficit would have been larger if not for Lukas Mihailovich’s 15 first-half points, including all six of his free throws.

“We weren’t having fun out there, so we said, let’s go out in the second half and fly around and have fun,” Mihailovich said.

Hawes said he took a relatively calm approach to his halftime talk.

“I think they thought I was coming after them, and part of me was ready to,” the veteran coach said. “But I thought, my goodness, they do not need that now. They get more agitated, next thing you know we’d be down double-figures and it’s over.”

The Panthers surged back in the game with a 6-0 run to open the second half. Potomac Falls stayed within three points of Broadway throughout the third quarter, but couldn’t muster a go-ahead bucket.

Down 38-35 entering the fourth, Zack Curran picked a good time to find his first points of the game. The junior connected on a baseline fadeaway, then followed with another jumper from nearly the same spot.

The Panthers had their first lead since the 6:45 mark of the first quarter.

“We kinda got rolling, and the crowd got into it, and when our crowd gets into it, our defense gets going,” said Curran, who Hawes calls the team’s emotional leader.

Potomac Falls went into a half-court trap on Broadway’s next possession, putting 6-foot-6 Greg Graves on the Gobbler point guard. Graves stole the ball at midcourt, picked it up on the run, raced down the floor and flushed down a right-handed dunk.

The Panther Pit roared.

Broadway was undaunted, and the fourth period saw four ties and four lead changes, culminating in a 52-52 score at regulation’s end.

With 1.8 seconds left in the first extra session, Broadway’s Adam Caplinger hit one of two free throws to knot the score at 57-57, sending the championship match into another overtime.

Mihailovich, who accounted for Potomac Falls’ first 10 overtime points, dropped home a driving layup 30 seconds in for a lead the Panthers would keep until the final buzzer.

“I just felt like the team needed a boost,” said Mihailovich, who was on the court for 39 minutes. “But I tell ya, if we had needed one more overtime, I might have needed to call myself out, I was so tired.”

Free throws, with which the Panthers had struggled early on, began to fall through. Mihailovich, Brendon Chesson, Alex Kress and Pete Simoneau combined to nail eight of 10 from the charity stripe in the second overtime.

The outcome was finally decided at 11:31 p.m., after 40 minutes of basketball played over two and a half hours. But the clock never struck midnight on the Panthers.

Hawes referenced a well-known cinematic portrayal of another state championship win.

“I’ve seen ‘Hoosiers’ 32 times,” he said. “I think I can watch it again now and just smile, knowing that we did that, the only team in Loudoun to ever do it. It’s a special moment.”

As the horn sounded and the Panther Pit shook the Siegel Center rafters, Hawes and the Panthers exploded onto the court in a fit of joy and hugs.

Before long, Hawes was hoisted on his players’ shoulders at midcourt, pumping his arms to the appreciative crowd. The net was cut down and draped around Hawes’ neck as the players took turns cradling the glistening gold trophy.

“I thought any second I was going to have to wake up and go to work. It just didn’t seem real,” Hawes said. “It’s something I’ve dreamt of for a long time, but never really thought it would happen.”

Mihailovich equaled his uniform number with 33 points on 11 of 22 shooting, including two 3-pointers and nine of 11 from the line. The junior guard also grabbed 13 rebounds, seven off the offensive glass.

Graves finished with 15 rebounds, eight points, eight blocks, four steals and the game’s only dunk.

“I can’t believe I dunked it!” the excited sophomore said. “In the state championship game!”

Fellow big man Mickey Waggenhoffer collected six strong rebounds before fouling out early in the first overtime period.

Potomac Falls completes the season with a 23-2 record, champions of Group AA Division 4, Region II and Dulles District regular season and tournament.

Potomac Falls Panthers

Players
Matt Byrd, Jr.
Brendon Chesson, Jr.
Zack Curran, Jr.
Greg Graves, Soph.
Garrett Hansen, Sr.
Zach Hobby, Jr.
Matt Hoover, Jr.
Alex Kress, Jr.
Lukas Mihailovich, Jr.
Tarrell Owens, Sr.
Pete Simoneau, Jr.
Ben Sweger, Jr.
Mickey Waggenhoffer, Jr.

Head coach
Jeff Hawes

Assistant coaches
Brad Bauder
Justin Brown
Kip Shallis

Managers
Mo Brito
Alana Lavesque
Maggie Rhodes
Emily Streich

Potomac Falls 69, Broadway 64 (2 OT)

PF: Mihailovich 33, Chesson 11, Graves 8, Curran 7, Simoneau 5, Wagenhoffer 3, Kress 2

B: Knight 19, Fulk 15, VanOrden 13, Richardson 10, Caplinger 7

Halftime: Broadway 29-23

Free throws: Potomac Falls (27 of 39); Broadway (15 of 25)

3-pointers: PF 2 (Mihailovich 2); B 5 (Fulk 3, Knight, Richardson)