Henry's layup gives Linn-Mar a 51-50 win over Dubuque Senior

DES MOINES - He was jumping up and down, waving his arms, hoping, praying that Marcus Paige saw him.

Andy Henry caught a ton of passes this past fall as one of the top football wide receivers in the state, but the touchdown grab he had Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Arena was the best of his prep career. By far.

Standing alone underneath the basket, Henry hauled in a half-court pass from Paige and converted a layup with five seconds left that gave Linn-Mar a 51-50 win over Dubuque Senior in a Class 4A state tournament quarterfinal. That's nine straight years of being in the final four for the Lions (20-4), though they were majorly stressed to get there this time.

“I guess you only have to lead at the end,” kidded Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson.

Senior (18-6) was up the entire game until Paige's step back 15-foot jumper put Linn-Mar (20-4) ahead for the first time with 1:05 to go, 49-47. Josh Weeber one-upped the North Carolina signee with a standstill 3-pointer near the NBA line at the top of the circle with 14 seconds left, giving Senior a 50-49 lead.

The Rams' leading scorer, Weeber had 15 points, all in the second half.

“I just thought I had to make a play there,” he said.

Paige ended up making a better one. He took the ensuing inbounds pass and dribbled to midcourt, where everyone in the building (including North Carolina Coach Roy Williams, who was in attendance) expected him to drive to the hole.

Instead he pulled up and threw a left-handed bullet to Henry, who, ironically, was the guy defending Weeber on his clutch shot.

“(Weeber) wasn't guarding me, so I just took off down the floor,” Henry said. “They must have gotten their matchups mixed up because I was wide open under the basket.”

“When Coach didn't call a timeout, and I was bringing it up, I was going to try to see if I could isolate my guy,” Paige admitted. “You know, go down swinging. But at the end of the day, we're a team. If your teammate is open, you've got to have trust in him. Andy Henry made a big play.”

Paige had 49 points in Linn-Mar's substate final miracle win over Cedar Rapids Kennedy last week but was comparatively pedestrian in a 23-point night, six under his average. He made 9 of 19 shots from the field.

“But that last play shows how special he is,” Robertson said. “Most guys would have gone down and taken that shot. It was a fitting finish.”

Reminiscent of that aforementioned Kennedy game. The Cougars had a game-winning shot at the buzzer go in and out.

This time, Senior's Kyle Haber power dribbled down the left side of the court and put up a running leaner from about 14 feet at the buzzer that went around and out. Linn-Mar's Matt Lassen was the defender, as he was against Kennedy.

“This one was halfway down, too,” Lassen said. “I actually thought they'd call a foul. They'd been calling them the whole game. But I thought I was straight up, and (Haber) kind of jumped into me.”

Linn-Mar plays second-ranked Iowa City West (24-0) in a 3:15 semifinal Friday. The Trojans won the early regular-season encounter, 75-63.

Here is video of the Weeber-Henry sequence (above), Haber's final drive (below), an interview with Paige (below) and a copy of game boxscore and play by play:

Dubuque Senior vs Linn-Mar, Marion (03!0!12 at IA Boys State Tournament-Class4A Quarter)