The final shot Cody Laweryson made in his high school basketball career was an exclamation point. The Valley High School senior’s dunk in the closing seconds of the Class D state championship game brought fans to their feet and capped the Cavaliers’ 55-44 win over Easton.

“What a way to end your career, with a dunk,” Valley boys basketball coach Luke Hartwell said.

Throughout the Cavaliers’ run to their first state title since 2003, Laweryson was the team catalyst. He averaged 24 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks per game to lead Valley to an undefeated season.

“It was just a lot of fun, especially with coach Hartwell. He’s meant so much to me. He told me to work hard in the offseason. It’s all about hard work,” Laweryson said.

For his strong play and role in bringing a Gold Ball back to Valley, Cody Laweryson is the Morning Sentinel Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

“I think he’s a top 15 player in the entire state of Maine, not just Class D,” Hartwell said.

Laweryson’s high school basketball career saw him evolve from a 5-foot-6 freshman guard to the 6-4 senior forward who dominated play from the start of the season to that final emphatic dunk. With his growth, Laweryson’s role changed. His first three seasons Laweryson was primarily a guard and played on the perimeter. Before the start of the season, Hartwell approached Laweryson about adding some low post play to his game. Laweryson was all for it.

“I’d been a guard my whole life, all the way to senior year,” Laweryson said. “This year I played a lot of (forward) mainly because of rebounding purposes.”

Playing Laweryson inside more enabled the Cavaliers to create defensive mismatches. Laweryson had the size of a forward but still had the quickness of a guard, so when he inevitably worked to the perimeter he often brought along a defender not used to scrambling in the open space. That allowed Laweryson to create his shot or drive past the defender to the rim.

“If he’s got a post game, he can go outside with a big on him,” Hartwell said. “He always had the outside game, but he developed a post game.”

This season, Hartwell gave Laweryson the green light to shoot when he felt he was open. Even with more emphasis on his inside game, Laweryson was still a dangerous shooter from outside. In four playoff games — three Southern regionals and the state game — Laweryson made 15 3-pointers, including six in the regional final win over Seacoast Christian, and averaged 24.5 points per game. Laweryson’s dunk at the end of the state game may be the most memorable shot of his career, but it was a 3-pointer he made in the Western Class D final as a sophomore against Hyde that was the most important.

With eight seconds left, Laweryson’s three gave the Cavs their only lead of the game and a 50-49 win.

“Sophomore year vs. Hyde, that was just an exciting game,” Laweryson said.

Hartwell looks at that shot and a key block in the second quarter of this season’s regional final just two examples of when Laweryson has made big plays on the big stage. The block came as Laweryson closed the gap on a fast breaking Caleb La Croix. The Seacoast guard went up for the layup that would have increased his team’s slight lead, only to have the streaking Laweryson swat the ball out of bounds. After trailing much of the first half, the play sparked the Cavs to a 10-0 run to go to the break with the lead.

“He wanted to play in big moments,” Hartwell said of Laweryson. “He did not shy away.”

In the regular season finale against Richmond at the Augusta Civic Center Laweryson scored his 1,000th career point. The milestone came on a layup in the fourth quarter, and like so many of Laweryson’s shots it was instrumental in a Valley win. Point 1,000 came during an 18-9 run that saw the Cavs take the lead, and Laweryson finished the game with 31 points and 25 rebounds.

Laweryson grew up hearing stories of the Valley teams that won 101 straight games and a state record six consecutive state titles from 1998 to 2003, teams Hartwell was a member of for four of those titles. Joining his coach and assistant coach Jason Hartwell (Luke’s twin brother) as a state champ and a 1,000-point scorer for the Cavs was important to Laweryson.

“It’s awesome to be in that club with them (Hartwells).” Laweryson said.

The McDonald’s Senior All-Star Game was Laweryson’s final basketball game. He’s accepted a scholarship to join the University of Maine baseball team as a pitcher next season. Hartwell thinks if he chose basketball, Laweryson could be a strong player at the Division III level.

“Obviously his best sport is baseball,” Hartwell said, “but he’s not too shabby a basketball player.”

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM

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