Originally appeared on Vype.com

On February 10, 2018 Wisdom Boy’s Basketball Team took a giant leap in the right direction.

All year long the team has struggled to play together as a team, but unfortunate circumstances in their recent game against Waltrip left them with no choice but to count on each other.

In the game, Wisdom trailed nearly the entire game before finally tying the game in the fourth quarter.

They did well in the fourth by outscoring Waltrip 10-7 but that wouldn’t be enough to get the win, instead the game was extended into overtime.

4-ON-5

The Generals did well in overtime as they were leading 43-41, but when two of their players fouled out Wisdom was only left with 4 players who could finish the game.

“I felt like we had a shot,” Mike Todd, Wisdom’s head coach said. “I told them this may be the one right here if they keep doing what we’ve been going over.”

With 20 seconds left Wisdom had to inbound the ball with only a 43-41 lead.

With only four players on the court, Wisdom’s inbounder only had three options to pass it to and since Waltrip had the advantage in numbers they covered up a good portion of the court.

COURT AWARENESS

However, though it appeared that Waltrip had the advantage in numbers, them loading up on one side of the court cost them.

“When we were inbounding the ball I saw everybody over to one side and it was just one side open,” sophomore Justin Jones said. “I ran to the open side and caught the ball because I knew nobody was going to get to me in time.”

Once Jones caught the ball he got fouled with only 3 seconds remaining. He went to the foul line and hit the first free-throw then missed the second one. Before Waltrip could get a hold of the ball to launch up a shot, the clock had expired and Wisdom had won 44-41.

LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT YEAR

“It was heart-pounding and a really cool experience to have to seal the deal and won the game,” Jones said.

Jones led the team with a double-double, he had 15 points and a least 10 rebounds.

Getting the win gave Wisdom their first district victory of the season, but most importantly, Todd thinks winning the way they did boosted the players confidence which will cause them to have a better season next year.