La Salle shows championship pedigree in losing state basketball title. Here's what happened

The La Salle boys basketball team deserved to be champions — but not for the reason you might have heard about.

Classical won the state championship game on Sunday — and deserved to. Devin Sone’s hustle rebound led to his eventual buzzer-beating 3-pointer that gave the Purple a 67-66 win in what was the best high school basketball game of the season.

It didn’t come without controversy. Video shot by The Journal of Classical’s final possession shows a call that might have changed the game. After Sone grabbed an offensive rebound — he found a way, as the smallest player on the court to get in the paint and come up with the ball — and, as he was falling to the floor, passed to guard Abdul Evans near the left corner.

More: Classical's last-second basket captures boys state championship. Here's how it happened.

With no shot, Evans attacked the basket, then continued down the baseline to reset the play.

On his way, Evans stepped on the baseline. It wasn’t a toe or just the tip of a sneaker. Evans planted on the line with the left side of his right foot before he got to the right corner, which is when he got the ball to Eliezer Delbrey, who swung it to Sone, who hit the shot nobody will soon forget.

Evans stepped on the line with 10 seconds left, an eternity in basketball. Even if that call was made, it’s impossible to say La Salle would have won. Clearly the call would have increased its chances.

La Salle coach Mike McParlin says he’s not on social media and didn’t see the video that, between Twitter and Instagram, was viewed nearly 20,000 times. He also wasn’t interested in dwelling on it.

“It was a great game between two great teams that were both deserving of winning a championship,” McParlin said. “Sone, he had to make the shot. That was that. We had a chance to win, they had a chance to win, and they had the ball last and made it happened.

“I give credit to that kid. There was no one play, no one call that influenced that entire game.”

McParlin’s perspective is different than most basketball coaches. During the fall, McParlin officiates high school football games and worked the Division II Super Bowl. He has an understanding of why calls are made, something your average spectator might not think about.

The video shows exactly what happened, making it easy for someone watching it to scream “how could he miss that?” The video doesn’t fully account for what’s happening.

As Evans heads toward the basket, the official is watching for contact. La Salle’s Rex Zadrozny gets beat to the baseline, but the senior center avoids contact that would have nudged Evans out of bounds and drawn a foul. The second Evans’ clears Zadrozny, you see the official’s head twitch down for a split second. By that time, Evans' foot is off the line.

In real time, there wasn’t a single person in the Ryan Center that saw Evans step on the baseline. The players didn’t. The official didn’t. The Journal reporter who shot the video didn’t.

Had someone seen it, the two timeouts that followed Sone’s shot gave people plenty of opportunity to scream their displeasure about missing such an “obvious” call. No one uttered a word until the game was long over. There’s no replay in high school basketball, but even if there was, nobody would have thought to use it on a play that, at the time, seemed rather straightforward.

In a perfect world, the call would have been made. While perfection is the goal, sports don’t always work that way.

“I don’t think you can ever be perfect in anything you do,” McParlin said. “Everyone has a different perspective. That’s what it is. In coaching and teaching and any job, you try to do your best with what you have with the tools in front of you.

“Any profession is no different than coaching or officiating. I thought the officials did a great job [on Sunday] night and I don’t have any complaints. I thought that kid made a great shot to win a championship game.”

Disappointed in the result, McParlin was nothing but proud of how La Salle played and handled itself in the game’s toughest moments. The Rams saw an 11-point first-quarter lead disappear, but didn’t let it get them down. The Rams trailed by five late and fought back. Jacob Marcone’s 3-pointer shot with 30 seconds left was truly one of the biggest shots the state’s ever seen, right up until Sone hit a bigger one.

And when the game was over, La Salle showed its true colors. The Rams congratulated every Classical player on the win, accepted their runner-up trophy and medals, and applauded as the Purple were handed theirs for winning the state title.

“This is what sports are,” McParlin said. “You teach the kids to compete, teach the kids to deal with adversity and be able to bounce back. You want them to be able to handle failure, to be vulnerable and in that moment, our kids were vulnerable.

“This is a life lesson that will teach them to be young adults and husbands and fathers and all the things that they’ll need to be able to one day teach their own kids.”

“I always tell the kids you’ll learn more dealing with failure and losses than winning, but when you succeed you’ll know exactly what it feels like because of the adversity you’ve already gone through.”

Handling a loss like Sunday’s isn’t easy. Handling a loss like Sunday’s in the aftermath of video showing something that might have changed a tough outcome is even more difficult.

But after what they showed on Sunday night, it’s clear La Salle will be able to do it.

Just like a champion would.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: La Salle won't cry over missed call in basketball championship