EAST LANSING -- The Rockford girls basketball team has its first state championship and the story of how it happened won’t soon be forgotten within the community.
While there are many heroes in the tale, Rockford junior guard Grace Lyons is the focal point of the story’s climax.
With under a minute left in the Division 1 state championship game and Rockford trailing, 36-35, to defending champion West Bloomfield, Lyons picked one heck of a moment to make her first basket of the game.
After going 0-for-3 from the field throughout the game -- all from 3-point range -- Lyons hoped to get an opportunity to help the team on the scoreboard after recording a team-high 23 points in the semifinals a day prior. As a 48-percent shooter from beyond the arc this season, Lyons was finally able to line up an open 3-pointer with the clock nearing 40 seconds seconds remaining.
As she had done over 70 times this season, Lyons hit the 3-point shot and sent the large Rockford fan base on hand inside the Breslin Center into a frenzy as the Rams took a 38-36 lead with 39 seconds to go.
“As soon as the ball went up, I knew it had a very good shot of going in,” Lyons said. “I was praying that it was going in. Right when it happened, everyone started cheering, but I knew I had to get back (on defense), you know, and get a stop because we wanted it really bad.”
FULL RECAP: Clutch, cool 3-pointer propels Rockford past reigning D1 girls basketball champ West Bloomfield
Immediately, Rockford got back on defense and was quickly rewarded as West Bloomfield turned the ball over on a pass out of bounds.
It was then Lyons and her Rams teammates could celebrate a shot that will be talked about for years to come in the Rockford community.
How long, exactly?
“Probably forever,” said Rockford coach Brad Wilson. “You know, it’s a sports town. High education, high standards. But our community loves our teams. Anywhere you go, you can’t get away from it. So, I’d expect the rest of my lifetime. I’m a Rockford Ram forever. I’m raising my family here and I’m a teacher at the school. I’m assuming we’re going to have conversations about this for the rest of my life. There’s nothing more I’d rather talk about. So, pretty awesome.”
Fittingly, Lyons was able to cap the game with all eyes on her with 0.1 seconds left as she converted a pair of free-throws to put a bow on the championship and the 40-36 victory.
“Amazing,” Lyons said of the moment. “I mean, when I’m in the gym with my dad, my dad is always like, ‘You’re down two in the state finals. You have to make this free-throw.’ So it was just like that and I’m glad I actually got to do it.”
Lyons heroics were not limited to her last-minute points. In order to set up the shot of the game, she made the defensive play of the game too.
With 1:12 remaining, Lyons came out of nowhere from behind a West Bloomfield player to get her hand on a pass and steal the ball. It was Lyons’ second steal of the game and Rockford was able to call a timeout, setting up the possession where Lyons made her heroic shot.
“You know, the ball wasn’t thrown super fast, so I knew I could try and get around her and get a tip on it,” Lyons said. “I just moved my feet and got around and didn’t cause a foul and I just got my hand on the ball... It could have definitely been a foul (but) I didn’t.”
A foul would have sent West Bloomfield to the line and given Lyons her fourth foul. Instead, her steal changed the entire trajectory of the game.
“What’s special about Grace is we can have a gameplan and she can execute that gameplan in big moments,” Wilson said. “So, yeah, she saw the opportunity and she got the steal. You know, it was huge. Huge. Prime-time performer.”
The game was a trial of guts and will as scoring was at a premium both teams stayed within four points of each other throughout the entire second half, exchanging leads eight times while being tied twice.
West Bloomfield earned one last chance to tie the game at the free-throw line with 2.8 seconds left, but Lakers junior Summer Davis saw her first attempt loop out of the rim and her second attempt as intentionally missing did not come in contact with the rim and gave possession to Rockford.
Wilson nearly had an out-of-body experience after the final buzzer sounded.
“I about passed out, you know, when the clock struck zero and we won,” Wilson said. “Yeah, I feel better now. I just feel so humbled and I’m so proud of our community for coming out and supporting us, for the girls stepping up and making big plays to win this thing, and just our program overall to put us in position to play for something like this. It’s just a phenomenal feeling.”
Rockford and Lyons would not have had a chance to win it at the end if not for the effort of sophomore forward Anna Wypych, who was the Rams’ most impactful player with a 20-point, eight-rebound effort.
“She was amazing today,” Lyons said of Wypych. “Everybody played so well as a team and she really kept us in this game when some of us weren’t doing what we needed to do. But at the end of the day, we got it done.”
After carrying the team offensively for most of the game, she was more than happy to hand the spotlight to Lyons.
“I knew she was going to make it,” Wypch said of the shot. “Her shots weren’t falling, but I told her to keep shooting because its going to fall and it did right at the perfect time for us. She sealed the deal, basically, with that and her free-throws.”
Rockford easily had the largest fan section of the tournament and Wypych credits the Rams faithful for helping the team have the confidence to continue to fight though a drama-filled game.
“Our community at Rockford is one of the best I’ve ever been at,” Wypych said. “Everyone goes to our games, whether it’s girls or guys or any sport. I think that, because of of them, they gave us the energy and the momentum that we needed. Because of that, I think that’s why we won. Not only that, but we’ve also worked really hard to get here.”
After losing to West Bloomfield, 66-63, in last year’s semifinal round, the win was all the more full circle for Rockford as it claimed the throne for the first time.
“Once that final buzzer rang, it just all came to me,” Wypych said. “I just took it all in and all I could do was just cry. I was so happy. I didn’t think it was real, but it is. All the work we put in and paid off.”
While so much more than a single 3-point shot went into the Rams’ championship season, Lyon’s lone field goal of the game will forever shine as the biggest shot in Rockford history.
“It was just amazing,” Lyons said. “The way we pulled that out, it was great and it really shows our resilience as a team.”
Ad Choices