By Doug Harris
DAYTON DAILY NEWS
He hugged his wife, Mary Ann, and his eyes welled up with tears. When he embraced Jay Murnen, the brother of Kurt, a former player who died March 4 and has been a source of inspiration--and some would say, intervention--through the tourney trail, hardly anyone in the Alter entourage could keep from crying.
When Waleskowski deflected Philo's last-gasp attempt, a pile of delirious Alter players collected in the middle of the court.
This is the second state crown under the 35-year coach--the Knights won the big-school title in 1978--and there may never be one more improbable.
Alter won its last four games in overtime and, after the first 14 minutes, didn't have a lead in this one until the OT.
The Knights insisted that Murnen, who played on the '96 state team, gave them a little help from above.
"We all truly believe he's up there helping us out," said Waleskowski, the tournament MVP, "helping our shots to go in and their shots to go out, giving us the breaks."
"Somebody is watching out for us," said Petrocelli, who keeps Murnen's picture in his pocket. "You can't have the roll we've been on unless something strange is happening. We believe Kurt's with us."
Philo was a free throw or a rebound away from taking the crown home. It could get neither.
With a 47-44 lead and a chance to put the game away, junior Aaron Wahl missed a pair from the line, and Alter called timeout with 19 seconds left.
Needing a 3-pointer, Waleskowski was the first to try. He missed, but running down the rebound was teammate John Staub, who heaved another. That rimmed out, but the ball ended up in the hands of Mark Borland, who took two steps back and pulled the trigger.
The ball went through with two seconds to go to force overtime and send Petrocelli into a fist-thrusting explosion that would have dropped Evander Holyfield. When the replay of the Borland shot was shown on the jumbotron, commotion ensued on the Philo side as fans pointed to the picture to say Borland was inside the line.
Waleskowski said, "If you look closely at it on replay, his toe was on the line." And Borland wasn't sure. "I was just trying to get back there and get the shot off."
But the Alter bench, which had the best view since it happened just a few feet away, was unanimous.
Petrocelli said, "I definitely thought it was good." And his assistants all agreed. Even the team priest, Father Lawrence Mirenfield, said, "He took off behind the line. And you know I can't lie."
Perhaps the most credible opinion, though--sorry, Padre--belonged to Philo defender Darren Tigner, who when asked if the call was correct dejectedly said, "Yes."
The chess game of regulation continued in the OT. Alter killed almost two minutes but came away empty despite two shots. Philo then squeezed the clock until Tigner was fouled at 1:12.
Alter again was the one without the upper hand. Or so it seemed.
"I wasn't too worried," Staub said. "We've been in that position before. Kurt was looking down on us."
Tigner had the double bonus, but missed both. The Electrics, in an otherwise nearly impeccable performance, were just 7 of 15 from the line, including 3 of 9 in the final six minutes of regulation and OT.
"You can't expect to win a state championship going 7 of 15," Philo coach Todd Van Reeth said. "What can I say? Sometimes you have to be lucky to win a state championship. Obviously, Alter was a little bit luckier than us ... make that a lot luckier."
Alter whittled the clock to 0:19 and called timeout. And then set up 6-foot-9 Waleskowski, whose shot danced on the rim before falling through in front of the gold-shirted throng of Knight fans.
