STATE EXTRA: SACCO: A shot for the history books

RICHMOND

Can you imagine a better way for your high school basketball career to end? Don’t think so.

Especially if your life is steeped in history. Especially if history is the only reason you play basketball at Buffalo Gap High School. If it wasn’t for history, after all, Tess Miller might still be living in Manassas. But her father, Bill, a historical writer, penned a book on Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s famed cartographer, Jedediah Hotchkiss, and bought his historical house in Churchville. History gave you Tess Miller, Buffalo Gap.

And it’s only fitting that Miller will now be an answer to those who follow the history of the Bison girls basketball program.

“Who hit the last bucket as Buffalo Gap romped its way to a second straight Group A, Division 1 state title?” they’ll ask someday.

Yep. Tess Miller.

And, thanks to a milestone called “graduation,” Miller’s basketball career is now history at Buffalo Gap.

“Tess?” asked Madison Benner, Miller’s friend since kindergarten, “We kind of say whenever she gets in she’s scores. It’s always automatic.”

And it’s always looked forward too.

As the clock hit the five minutes in the fourth quarter and with Gap all but hoisting another state title over their collective heads, the Gap student section rose to its feet and began to chant, “We want Tess.” Sitting on the bench, Miller cracked into a smile and the players sitting on either side of her began to bump her back and forth between them.

And when coach Chad Coffey emptied the bench one minute and 28 seconds away from the ultimate pay dirt, Miller checked in and the students went wild.

With 15 ticks left on the clock and the emotions from the on-their-feet Bison crowd turning the Siegel Center air thick with cheers, Miller took a pass from fellow senior Madison Benner and put up a jumper.

Glass then net.

There is history with that assist as well. Benner and Miller have been best friends since kindergarten.

“I wouldn’t have wanted it,” Miller said of the pass, “from anybody else.

Benner, her eyes still red with tears, began crying again as she thought of her final assist in the Gap uniform and the girl, it seems, she always has a hand in helping score.

“When she scores, I always, well, not always, but I pass it to her,” she said. “Don’t make me cry.”

Too late.

And when Benner’s shot cut the nylon there were tears shed in the stands. Her mother, Susan, broke down after the shot.

“I burst into tears,” she said, clutching a bottle of water. “It makes me proud that she’s a cool enough kid and they like her so much.”

(“We want Tess. We want Tess.”)

“It’s embarrassing,” Miller said. “Well, it’s embarrassing that it works sometimes.”

There have been some games when the student section has lit it up with her name and coach Chad Coffey called for her to go in.

“It’s very flattering, obviously,” she said.

Even another name from Gap history, Megan Morgan from last year’s state-title team, could only smile as she relived Miller’s final shot.

“I jumped up and down,” she said. “It was pretty exciting.”

And as Miller reached out to touch the trophy, she turned to the student section and smiled. They applauded wildly for all the girls.

Holly Morgan, Megan’s younger sister, smiled in the hallway at the mere mention of Miller’s final bucket.

“Tess always comes in, hits that final shot and it’s over,” she said with a smile.

And so the little-used center’s career ends. In her final season she played in 15 games. She scored 12 points.

The last two were the best of them all.

“It’s kind of her last deal,” Benner said trying her best to hold back tears. “I was happy for her.”

And, like all good historical moments, Miller walked off the court regally and never looked back.

Nah, we’re kidding. As she exited the floor she stumbled a bit and caught herself just before she fell. The student section broke out in cheers again, Miller looked their way, pointed and smiled.

Fellow seniors Boone Jones and Pickle Nuckols smiled back.

Yep, that’s just Tess.

That was just history.