50 After 50: No. 29 Mustangs became epitome of sharing glory and banding together to make history

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. 29 — Unity 2013-14

MENDON, Ill. — A professional move brought Lane Davis to St. Louis to work as a software engineer, but it also allowed the former Unity basketball standout the ability to get home a little more often.

He took advantage of it this past Christmas, which also provided him the opportunity to attend the annual Mississippi Valley Invitational Tournament.

“All of those kids playing now were third or fourth graders when I was a senior in high school,” said Davis, a 2014 Unity graduate. “We were refereeing their games on the weekends back then. It’ll make you feel really old when you see them becoming adults now.”

It’s only been eight years since Davis and the Mustangs turned the Adams County hamlet into basketball heaven, and in some ways, Davis said it feels like the calendar just turned.

In others, it seems like forever since the Mustangs stepped onto the state stage.

“My memories make it feel like yesterday,” Davis said.

And the memories of walking into Peoria’s Carver Arena remain vivid.

There was even a “Hoosiers” moment.

“It was kind of surreal,” Davis said. “When you’re not exposed to those kind of environments growing up, then you walk into there, it’s unique. You walk into your gym and you can put your whole team holding hands side-to-side and stretch the whole gym from one end to the other.

“Then you walk into the arena in peoria and everything just echoes. You look around and you’re like, ‘Holy crap. There’s going to be people up there in the nosebleeds, really?’ It was fun and neat to be in that atmosphere with everyone coming and rooting us on. It’s something I’ve always held onto and something I’m everyone else has, too.”

The 2014 Unity squad was the first team in any sport in school history to win a state trophy, finishing third in Class 1A following a 59-43 victory over Sesser-Valier in the third-place game. The Mustangs finished with a 21-12 record, turning a No. 2 seed in its own regional.

But a 45-43 overtime victory against top-seeded Camp Point Central in which freshman Cory Miller Jr. hit four free throws in the final 15.6 seconds of overtime propelled one of the most magical postseason runs the Mustangs have ever put together.

They outlasted Liberty 66-59 in the sectional semifinals and beat Kewanee Wethersfield 68-49 in the sectional championship. The 67-49 victory over Waterloo Gibault in the super-sectional at the Jacksonville Bowl featured such incredible offensive efficiency there was virtually no way the Mustangs would be denied.

Unity shot 75 percent from the field in the second half and 69 percent from the field overall. Gibault went 1 of 18 from 3-point range and couldn’t contend with the Mustangs’ variety of weapons.

Davis finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds in that game. Alex Blickhan scored 17 points. Adam Donley hit a critical 3-pointer and added an assist in the first-half run that secured the lead. Dylan Shaffer, Will Klusmeyer and Miller each played a part, too.

“I think one of the things that really made it special, looking back now as an adult and knowing what it’s like working in a place where teamwork is needed, is we all had personalities that meshed well together,” Davis said. “We didn’t really have anyone that was so competitive that they needed to steal the spotlight.

“We were all able to work through our moods, our complaints, anything that aggravated us in practice or in games. We were able to work through it and talk through it. We didn’t have any grudges between any players on the team. At the time, I took that for granted.”

The coaching staff never did, not after seeing six different players lead the Mustangs in scoring throughout the season.

“There was no superstar kid,” said Unity coach Keith Carothers, now in his 15th season at the helm. “It was everything as a basketball coach you want it to be. Everybody is unselfish, plays together, runs the system, trusts each other, has each other’s back. That part of it was a blast.”

So was being the first team in Unity history to step foot on the state stage.

“It was the epitome of everyone do your job and we’ll be OK, we’ll be successful,” Carothers said. “That’s really what it was. This team bought in to truly doing everything together.”