In the mayhem that followed Lake Travis 62-61 overtime loss in the Region IV final to LBJ, Cavaliers David Eads and Cole Vucurevich stood frozen and stunned.

All around them, purple-clad players and fans screamed in elation, danced, embraced and celebrated. The Cavaliers’ dream season was shattered on a buzzer beater that probably never should have happened, and it took Lake Travis assistant coach Jason Jaynes coming over to shuffle Eads off the court amid the hysteria.

There was a lot to be proud of for the Cavaliers (31-4), who put together the best basketball season in school history and did it with a group of players that were constantly underestimated by opponents.

But it didn’t stop the tears from flowing after the loss.

“I know there’s nothing I can say to you right now to make this any easier,” Lake Travis head coach Jan Jernberg told his team in the locker room. “You just had your hearts ripped out, and I know it hurts. But if this is the worst thing that ever happens to you in your life, you’ll have a pretty good one. You accomplished so much this year.”

The Cavs took their time dressing in the locker room, each player taking the loss in his own way.

Some joking to try to lighten the atmosphere, others remaining silent and tuned out. When they finally walked out of the arena at St. Mary’s University, they were greeted by sunshine and a showering of applause by the Cavalier faithful.

It helped, but only so much.

“They’re going to replay that game over and over in their heads for the rest of their life, wondering what they could have done to change things,” Jernberg said. “They can’t do that. Could we have done things differently? Sure. But there’s no use in dwelling on something like that.”

It was a tight game from start to finish, and one that was never locked up. Lake Travis actually trailed 29-26 at halftime before pulling ahead 41-35 heading into the fourth quarter.

Tied 53-53 with 36 seconds left in regulation, Eads was fouled and sent to the line. He made one of two free throws to take a 54-53 lead. LBJ moved the ball across midcourt and called a timeout with 28 seconds left. They failed to convert on a wild layup, and the ball was last touched by an LBJ player before careening out of bounds with 2.2 seconds left. It appeared the game was over, and Lake Travis fans began celebrating. All they had to do was inbound the ball. Jernberg called timeout and hashed out a plan, and the Cavs set out to execute it.

Kerry Hyder wasn’t going to let that plan come to fruition.

The Jaguar forward reached out and swiped Eads’ intended pass to Ryan Betori under the LBJ basket, and before he could put it up for the winning layup, Betori swiped hard at the ball, drawing the foul.

“There wasn’t anything we could do, Hyder just made a play,” Jernberg said. “The guys did exactly what we wanted them to, he just got a hand on it and gave us hell like he had all night.”

Hyder missed the first shot, sending his teammates into a panic, but he calmly walked back to the line with one finger in the air. He sank the second to tie the game and send it to overtime at 54-54.

Lake Travis went on a 7-2 run to start overtime, but LBJ creeped back within one at 61-60 with 30 seconds left in the game. Lake Travis called timeout and again drew up a plan to close out the game, to keep possession of the ball as the seconds ticked away. But a Lake Travis pass across the lane was intercepted by LBJ, and the Jaguars sprinted to midcourt and called timeout with 17 seconds left.

When they hit the floor again, they put up two attempts that fell short of the basket, but forward Tim Dailey was there to put back the second miss as time expired, striking the final blow in the 62-61 LBJ win.

“I thought we had that game won so many times,” Lake Travis forward Jordan Jahr said. “You have to give LBJ credit, that’s a great team. It’s obviously disappointing, not just because of the loss, but because of how much these guys mean to me, and how much fun we’ve had this year together.”

Vucurevich led the Cavaliers with 18 points.

The tough loss made it easy to forget the two big wins that set up the final, both dominating performances in their own right.

Lake Travis opened Friday night’s Region IV semifinal against Corpus Christi Calallen on a 10-0 run, and the Wildcats never recovered, as the Cavaliers cruised to a 66-54 win.

But it was Wednesday night’s win over Killeen that probably meant the most.

Lake Travis topped Killeen 74-59 in the teams’ third meeting of the season, and this time, it was for the right to play in the Region IV tournament. The Cavaliers recorded the biggest win in program history by ousting the ‘Roos (30-7) from the 4A state playoffs in front of a packed house at Concordia University.

And for as competitive as the teams have been all season, the game was effectively in Lake Travis’ control midway through the second quarter.

Leading 24-22 after the first quarter, Lake Travis exploded on a 23-8 run in the second quarter, pulling away as Killeen desperately tried to climb back in with a series of three-point attempts.

“I don’t know why in the hell they didn’t keep throwing the ball inside to [Cory Jefferson],” Jernberg said of Killeen’s Baylor commit. “We did everything in the world to stop him, but he’s definitely every bit of 6-10.”

The Lake Travis crowd helped smother the ‘Roos when things really got out of control.

“They definitely helped push us that extra bit tonight,” Betori said. “It’s been incredible this year to see so many people at the games, and so much different than last year. “
But Jernberg points to Jahr and Betori as big reasons the Cavaliers were so successful during the playoffs.

“Jahr has had great games against Killeen every time we’ve played them,” Jernberg said. “And Betori has his mojo back, and as his mojo goes, our mojo goes, to be quite honest with you. We only played [Cole] Vucurevich seven minutes tonight, that’s how huge Betori has been.”

Going into Wednesday night’s game, Vucurevich was one of the team’s top scorers, but early foul trouble for the junior meant it was up to his teammates to take the ropes. Betori stepped up for the third straight game, draining big three-pointers to bury Killeen in the second quarter, after leading the Cavs in scoring in their first two playoff games.

Despite holding at least a 15-point lead over Killeen for much of the second and third quarter, the Cavs started to slip in the fourth quarter. With 4:44 left in the game, the ‘Roos pulled it to within 59-50. Despite the big leads the Cavs held, Jernberg never felt comfortable.

“With a minute left I felt pretty good,” he laughed. “The thing of it is, we kind of got in that situation when you become tender about it, when you’re not sure whether to hold the ball or take a shot. They came at us and that’s it. They made a run.”

Killeen then tried to expose the Cavaliers’ biggest weakness – free throw shooting. With just under two minutes left in the game, down 63-56, Killeen started fouling.

But Lake Travis was 8-for-10 from the charity stripe the rest of the way, confronting its own demons to reach the program’s first region tournament.

Jahr led the Cavs with 27 points.

The ride ended Saturday for Lake Travis, just one shot short of the state final four.

But the ride was Lake Travis’ best-ever while it lasted.