NEW HOPE — It wasn’t quite how New Hope boys basketball head coach Drew McBrayer had written it up, but it worked.
The Trojans had gone down-to-the-wire against Pontotoc on Tuesday night, trailing 70-69 with 16.6 seconds remaining.
A foul call change during New Hope’s timeout had the Trojans inbounding the ball instead of going to the foul line, needing just a basket to win the game.
After some chaos near the top of the key, a pass found forward Isaace Grady down low, a near-perfect look at a layup for the game-winner. He didn’t waste his chance, scoring to put New Hope up, 71-70, with just over three seconds remaining.
The ensuing inbounds play from Pontotoc was deflected out of bounds as the scoreboard showed all 0’s. Pontotoc fans were in disbelief as the referees left the floor without possibly putting time back on the clock, but that was it as New Hope celebrated a 71-70 win.
“It was really just my guard Matthew looking and making a good pass,” Grady said. “I didn’t even know he made the pass at first. I feel like I had the shot. I didn’t know if I was going to make it, but I did what I had to do…I’m glad we got back on track so we can keep going.”
This was a game where neither team could find a way to break out. When New Hope (6-6) started going on a run, Pontotoc immediately had an answer and vice-versa.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, both teams just started trading three-pointers, sinking one after another as the crowd stared in awe at what they were witnessing.
“That was a heck of a high school basketball game, wasn’t it?” McBrayer said. “I thought it was hard-fought on both ends. I thought there was a lot of shot-making tonight, some incredible plays by some individuals, and for it to come down to the wire at the end, it was only fitting.”
New Hope, despite taking a 35-31 lead into the half, didn’t look like a team that would have a chance at a game-winner as the Trojans had more than 15 fouls called against them.
Six players had at least two fouls going into halftime, including TJ Warren, who already had three.
However, they lucked out from a lack of fouls being called in the second half on both sides as the referees let Pontotoc and New Hope play, and what a display of basketball it became.
“We had to make it out alive in the first half,” McBrayer said. “We were just fighting for everything we could and then I think the officials kind of quit blowing the whistles a little bit, so that helped us out.”
The Trojans needed a win and needed one badly on Tuesday, coming into the game with a 5-6 record, and despite sitting at .500, they’re feeling really good as district play approaches.
Tough non-district schedules, while not always great for a team’s record, can do wonders for boosting morale when games matter most, and New Hope has taken that philosophy and ran with it.
“A tough opponent will always build us because every game, we always watch film and work on things,” Grady said. “They’re good, win or lose. You want to win, but even when you lose, you can work on what you did wrong to iron everything out, keep working, keep moving.”
The Trojans will be back at it on Dec. 29, hosting the Trojan Holiday Classic.
Pontotoc 63, New Hope 39
New Hope girls basketball looked to set the tone of the night from the jump, but ran into a buzzsaw that was Pontotoc.
After trailing, 12-6, at the end of the first quarter, the Trojans kept the deficit like that heading into the half, playing much more together as a unit and knocking down shots.
However, that momentum quickly faded as Pontotoc broke out a full-court press to begin the second half, which ended up sinking New Hope quickly in a 63-39 loss on Tuesday.
“We knew they ran it, so we were prepared for it,” New Hope head coach Nick Christy said. “That’s what was a little disheartening was we would run it and break it and [Pontotoc] made some adjustments on what we did to break it. We told them what the adjustments needed to be and we just didn’t get it done.”
A 23-17 halftime deficit turned into a 45-30 deficit by the end of the third quarter with New Hope (3-6) struggling to find any answers against Pontotoc, who started to execute plays like a well-oiled machine.
The game wasn’t over heading into the fourth quarter, but the Trojans needed to fix things and make a comeback fast.
That happened to an extent, with New Hope finding some offensive opportunities in times when Pontotoc’s press was broken, but those chances came too little, too late.
New Hope will look to turn the tides around on Dec. 29, hosting the Trojan Holiday Classic.
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