PLUM - Grove City High boys basketball coach Don Fee walked up to each of his players, hugged them and tried to console them.

But as the tears flowed faster than the pace of the game they lost, the Eagles had nothing else to do but wonder what if.

What if John Fee's shot at the buzzer had fallen?

What if they had contained Yough star Ben McCauley in the fourth quarter the way they did in the first three?

What if they had shot better than 30 percent from the floor?

What if? What if? What if?

The harsh answer to those questions was a 45-44 loss to the Cougars in the first round of the PIAA Class AAA playoffs Friday night at Plum High School.

"Johnny has been through a lot," Grove City coach Don Fee said of his son. "There were injuries he's dealt with all through high school, depression, he's played behind his younger brother. Nobody knows all of the things he's been through."

But in that moment when the senior let the ball fly as time ticked down, his father and coach thought it was going to be his son's shining moment of vindication.

"When he caught that ball - I consider myself a Christian - I thought it was tailor-made," Don Fee said. "I thought God's given him his moment. I was stunned when it didn't go in. It was like anyone else missing a layup."

The loss obscured the tremendous job Grove City (19-8) did against McCauley.

The 6-foot-8 Division I recruit was hounded all evening, scoring just seven points in the first three quarters.

But in the fourth quarter, McCauley hit 6-of-7 shots and scored 15 points in the frame. He finished with 22 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots.

"I think Grove City did a tremendous job defensively," said Yough coach Brian Znavor. "They did a tremendous job keeping him off the block. They did a great job making him play 15 feet and out."

But in the fourth quarter, McCauley was determined to play the post, no matter how many Eagles were draped on him.

Yough point guard Craig Sedunov was able to lob perfect passes to him in the paint, which certainly helped.

The game was played at a sluggish pace for most of the night as Grove City clung to a 16-15 lead at halftime.

Five minutes passed in the third quarter before a team hit 20 points as the Eagles claimed a 20-17 lead and extended it to 24-17 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

"We never widened that gap like we needed to," Don Fee said. "We did have a couple of mini-runs, but we couldn't get the lead to eight or double digits."

Instead, Yough (20-8) battled back and led 42-36 with 1:16 remaining in the game before Grove City launched one more rally.

The Cougars almost gift-wrapped the win for the Eagles.

With 6.9 seconds left and nursing a 45-43 lead, Yough guard Justin Shaffer looked frantically for an open teammate as he was trying to inbound the ball under the basket. When no one flashed open, he turned and called a timeout.

The only problem was that Yough didn't have any remaining.

Don Fee was going to send his younger son, sophomore Jordan, to the line to shoot the two technical foul shots, but Ben Husband lobbied the coach for the chance to shoot them.

He missed the first, but made the second.

That set up John Fee's agonizing miss.

"Even when it rattled, I thought it was going to fall," Don Fee said. "It was so surreal.

"I'm really proud of these guys. I was very thankful to have a locker room like we have with players standing up and giving testimonials and showing love and how they feel for each other. I'm proud of them for what they accomplished."

GROVE CITY 44

Ben Husband 3-12 5-8 13, Ryan King 3-10 2-2 8, Dustin Van Hook 1-2 0-0 2, Jordan Fee 7-13 0-0 16, John Fee 0-4 1-2 1, Tony Aloisio 1-3 0-0 2, Andy Geibel 0-3 0-0 0, Ben Liebling 0-2 0-0 0, Justin McNamara 1-4 0-0 2. Totals: 16-53 8-12 44

YOUGH 45

Justin Shaffer 1-2 1-2 3, Craig Sedunov 4-7 0-0 9, Adam Jones 0-2 2-2 2, Andrew McCauley 3-7 2-2 9, Chaz Bazzo 0-4 0-0 0, Ben McCauley 8-17 6-11 22. Totals: 16-39 11-17 45

3-point goals:

Husband 2, Jordan Fee 2, Sedunov, A. McCauley