Findlay Prep Shuts Down Bishop Gorman and Highly Touted Shabazz Muhammad

Heading into Saturday, January 21, there was an electricity in the air. The Las Vegas community had been buzzing about the Findlay Prep-Bishop Gorman game for weeks now.  Tickets were in such demand that StubHub saw tickets going for $200 and up.  That's right, for a high school basketball game. But this was no ordinary game. 

This was the year that Bishop Gorman was finally going to do it.  After three years in a row of failing to beat national high school basketball powerhouse Findlay Prep, there was a growing belief that Findlay had finally met its match in this crosstown rivalry. 

Bishop Gorman had just beat the fifth-ranked team in the country (DeMatha, Md.), and of course featured the consensus No. 1 player in the nation in Shabazz Muhammad.  There was the thought that there was no way Muhammad would allow his team to lose to Findlay all four years of his tenure at Gorman.  This game was the only thing left for Muhammad to cross off on his list of achievements during his illustrious high school career. 

I guess Findlay Prep didn't get the memo.  Findlay turned a one-point halftime deficit into a comfortable 73-61 victory at a sold-out Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.

The matchup saw two nationally ranked teams going head to head, as Findlay Prep entered the contest as the third-ranked team in the country and Gorman came in as the No. 16-ranked team.  Make no mistake, though, this game was clearly about local bragging rights. 

Bishop Gorman has dominated the Las Vegas area for years, but when Findlay Prep came into existence five years ago, there was a new alpha dog in the community.  Findlay, quickly has made a name for itself on the national map, taking on anyone and everyone, any place, any time.

It has already brought home two high school basketball national championships and has produced four NBA players in five years. It is the blueprint for what Bishop Gorman strives to be.  Not just a local player, but a national force. 

  Both teams came into this contest with major wins on their resumes.  Not only did Gorman feature a top-five win, but Findlay had just disposed of the No. 1 team in the country (Simeon, Ill.) by 25 points without top 10 senior prospect Anthony Bennett. 

Bennett, who has missed a major chunk of the season with a lingering hamstring injury, was declared out for the Gorman game as well.  This injury added fuel to the whispers that Gorman had a realistic chance at victory.

  The pregame hype turned out to be just that, all talk. The first half was an exchange of jabs, and counterpunches, with no team establishing any clear dominance. 

The half was highlighted by Gorman's Ben Carter, who nailed a near full-court heave at the buzzer to give Gorman a 34-33 halftime lead.  That shot had the eerie feeling that it was meant to be for Gorman. Almost like the basketball gods were on Gorman's side for the day.  It had all the makings of a developing Saturday afternoon classic.

Findlay Prep had other ideas coming out of the locker room. It decided to end the game in the third quarter and squash any thoughts of a dramatic finish.  Instead of a barn-burner game coming down to the final possession, Findlay Prep locked down defensively, igniting a 14-0 run to end the third quarter. Findlay's lead stood at 53-39 heading into the fourth quarter. 

The third quarter featured an amazing defensive effort by 6'8" wingman Winston Shepard on prized recruit Shabazz Muhammad. Shepard, who openly expressed his confidence in guarding Muhammad before the game, handed out a bagel to Muhammad in the third quarter.  Zero points and zero field goals was the stat line for Muhammad in the third quarter.  Not only did Shepard take him out of the game physically, but it was clear that Muhammad was mentally frustrated.

Mixed in with Shepard's defense was the backcourt duo of Dominic Artis and Nigel Williams-Goss.  Those two simply took over the game with their ball-handling ability and timely scoring.  They combined for 41 points and showed the floor leadership that other legendary Findlay guards have demonstrated in the past. 

Once the clock hit zeros and the final buzzer sounded, Findlay stood tall to another challenge with a resounding 73-61 win.  The win for Findlay marked the fourth win in four years over Gorman and put to rest all the upset talk that had been swirling around the Las Vegas Valley for the past couple of weeks.  

The two teams will now go their separate ways, with Gorman focusing on a Nevada state title and Findlay gearing up for a third national championship run in four years.  Not only did Findlay win this game, but it won something that you can't put a price on: bragging rights locally for the next 364 days.