We might’ve just seen one of the craziest endings to a basketball game ever.
Dallas Center-Grimes High School girls basketball faced Norwalk High School for an Iowa Class 4A championship game berth Thursday.
Norwalk looked to have it all locked up, leading by six with less than a minute left. But DCM sophomore Ava Smid wouldn’t let it happen.
With 40 seconds left, she caught an in-bounds pass from a DCM teammate and banked it off the glass for a quick layup, cutting its deficit to two.
Smid picked Norwalk’s pocket as DCM orchestrated a full-court press to perfection, snagging the ball and putting it up to tie the game. Then, she did it again to give DCM its first lead of the game.
“Oh my mercy, what just happened?” the announcer exclaimed as Smid capped off a personal 8-0 run in 19 seconds.
“Nobody knows,” his counterpart responded, as DCM’s student section went berserk.
Ava Smid willed Dallas Center-Grimes to the state championship with her eight-point burst. Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images After the game, Smid spoke to the Ames Tribune about the improbable comeback.
“I was just guarding. You don’t want to let them get the ball in bounds,” Smid said. “I was able to get some deflections and some steals and then I was able to translate them to buckets.
“We never had a doubt that we were gonna (win) this game.”
Ava Smid finished the game with a team-leading 16 points. Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images DCM sank three free throws after a missed Norwalk jumper to close out the game and win 47-42.
Smid added postgame that the Mustangs’ gameplan was to not foul in the final possession because Norwalk is a “good free throw-shooting team.”
Smid finished the game with a team-leading 16 points along with six steals, five rebounds and two assists. Her explosion helped DCM claw back from an initial 10-0 deficit, tying the game at 16 and later 28 before the game’s wild ending.
Now, DCM will play for the state title on Saturday against No. 5 seed Carlisle. DCM, the No. 2 seed, enters at 23-2 on a 15-game winning streak. The Mustangs also won it all in 2023.
With newfound momentum via Smid’s heroics, they’ll try to make it two in four years.
