50 After 50: No. 10 Hornets nearly knock out powerful QND, then tragic injury leads to ‘deflating moment’

The Illinois High School Association created a second class for boys basketball for the 1971-72 school year. The 2020-21 season would have been the 50th year of the boys basketball small-school tournament. Muddy River Sports is celebrating 50 years of small-school boys basketball by ranking the 50 best teams in Adams, Brown, Pike and Hancock counties since 1972.

No. 10 — 2003-04 Brown County

MOUNT STERLING, Ill. — Losing A.J. Kassing and his 19-points-per-game scoring average didn’t mean the Brown County boys basketball team would not be good during the 2003-04 season.

Just different.

The Hornets relied on their defense and for Kassing carry the offense in 2002-03. Evan Busen, the Hornets’ 6-foot-3 senior center, was back. More scoring was expected from starting guard and 3-point threat Brett Ufkes. Guards Anthony Logsdon and Adam Llewellyn had contributed during the previous season off the bench for the Hornets, who finished 27-3 and lost in the super-sectional.

“A lot of people compare my junior year to my senior year. Everybody talks about those two teams, and they’re like, ‘Which team would win?’” said Busen, a starter on both teams. “They’re just totally different teams. We were a little bit more defensively sound during my junior year. We created more offense from our defense and had more size that year. My senior year, we were more dribble, penetrate and kick. A bit more slash and drive.

“The expectation going into my senior year, I knew we had a fantastic team. There wasn’t really wasn’t like a lot of talk around town. We just played and didn’t really look into the future. We didn’t really look into what could be, but we knew we had the pieces in place to make a run. I graduated with 40 people in a town of 1,500 people, so you only have a handful of people who could really be out on the court. But we grew up together, we knew how to play, and we knew our expectations of each other.”

The Hornets opened the season in the Suns Classic and won all four games trouncing Unity 72-33 in the title game as Busen scored 25 points. Brown County won its next five games handily, beating Griggsville-Perry, Winchester, Rushville-Industry, Jacksonville ISD and Bluffs by an average of 39 points per game.

The Hornets breezed through the Mississippi Valley Invitational Tournament in Mendon, trouncing Unity 74-40 and Beardstown 70-35 before beating Liberty 69-51 in the title game. Busen had 21 points and 15 rebounds, and Logsdon led the team with 24 points.

Finally, Springfield Calvary put Brown County to the test on Jan. 6. The Hornets trailed 50-39 after three quarters but outscored the visitors 25-7 to win 64-57 in Mount Sterling and improve to 13-0. They also appeared at No. 6 in the first Class A state poll.

Another grueling test came Jan. 17 at home against Pittsfield, but Ufkes scored a season-high 34 points in a 72-59 victory. Brown County’s first loss during the previous season was against Pittsfield after opening the season with 18 straight victories.

“We’re 18 and 0 (in 2003), and we went down to Pittsfield and got beat,” Ufkes said. “It was definitely one of those things where we looked past our opponent. That was definitely a learning experience. We didn’t forget that when we were seniors.”

A 15-game winning streak, however, game to an end with a 42-32 loss to Triopia in Concord. The Hornets shot 24 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 16 times.

“After beating Pittsfield, we were kind of ripe for a letdown,” Hornets coach Van Wilson said.

“We just had an off night,” Busen said. “I will always remember that score, 42-32. We just couldn’t put the ball in the hole that night. It was just kind of a weird night.”

Brown County started West Central Conference play after that loss and went undefeated to reclaim the league crown. The only WCC team to give the Hornets a scare was Central, which lost 71-65 on Jan. 27. 

They finished the regular season with a 24-1 record, and Busen was averaging 17.8 points and 9.5 rebounds. The Hornets averaged 68 points per game and had an average margin of victory of 22 points.

Brown County opened regional play at home with a 77-47 victory over Central in the semifinals. A rematch with Triopia in the championship game turned out to be sweet revenge two days later as the Hornets rolled to a 61-44 victory. 

“We had 37 days to think about the last time we played, and it didn’t set well with us,” Wilson told the Herald-Whig.

The Hornets, ranked No. 5 in the state, opened the sectional at Havana by defeating Nauvoo-Colusa 65-41. Busen scored 19 points while also contributing 12 rebounds and seven assists.

Up next was No. 4 Quincy Notre Dame in the final.

“I’ll never forget how it exciting it was that night and how many people they packed into that Havana gym,” Wilson said. “I’m sure they had to ignore the fire code that night.”

QND led 55-38 with 2:21 left in the third quarter, but Brown County answered with a 15-1 run. 

Alex Ebbing drained two 3-pointers down the stretch, the second one giving the Hornets their first lead at 65-64 with 1:32 left. QND’s Joe Terwelp answered with a putback on the next possession.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Logsdon was driving to the basket and went up for a go-ahead layup with 38.1 seconds remaining. The shot didn’t fall, and when Logsdon landed, he suffered a gruesome compound fracture in his lower right leg. The game was delayed for 37 minutes. Players huddled in front of their respective benches. A standing-room-only crowd of 2,000 stood in silence as paramedics attended to Logsdon.

“At this point, I really don’t care who wins,” Busen said. “All my thought went to the safety for Anthony and the safety for his family. I really honestly just worried about my friend and my teammate. It honestly just took the wind out of the sails of both teams. I remember somebody saying, ‘You know what? Let’s just get this done. Obviously, we wanted to win, but at the time, we were just more concerned with his safety. 

“It was a really deflating moment.”

QND’s Ryan Fesler went to the free throw line and missed both attempts when play resumed. The Raiders fouled Brown County’s Brian McNeff after the second Fesler miss, but he missed the front end of the bonus, and Terstriep answered by making one of two free throws for a 67-65 QND lead. After Adam Llewellyn made one of two free throws to pull Brown County within one, Johnny Bocke hit one of two attempts for QND to make it 68-66. 

An errant 3-point attempt by sophomore Alex Ebbing was the Hornets’ last gasp. Terstriep sealed the victory with two final free throws with 4.7 seconds left.

“I remember whenever the horn sounded, there wasn’t really, you know, jumping for joy from QND,” Busen said. “That game took a lot out of not only us players, but the coaches and fans … I mean everybody involved. Even as a losing team, it was just like, we didn’t even really care about the game. We just cared about Anthony.”

QND stymied the Hornets again just shy of a state tournament bid and went on to place third. Brown County finished with the best record in school history at 27-2. Busen harbors no bitterness.

“There’s absolutely zero hard feelings,” he said. “It’s just really cool that we could all talk about it in college and still talk about it and even play golf together. A handful of us guys went to state and watched them and hung out with the QND guys. We were there to support them. They beat us, and I know that sounds kind of indifferent. (With QND) being from our area and a team that you respect that much, you definitely want to see the best outcome for them.

“We were capable. We were almost there. It’s just very unfortunate that we just had to meet where we met.”