Alijuan Moore steps to the free throw line and takes a deep breath.
The Charles B. Aycock senior had missed his first attempt and, with only 1.6 seconds remaining on the clock, knows that sinking the second would all but clinch a comeback victory over Cleveland High School.
The Aycock faithful are silent, but the opposing cheerleaders are stomping on the bleachers.
It’s clearly a high-pressure moment.
Moore takes another breath and releases the ball.
The shot is good.
Moments later, an errant inbound pass ends the game and the Golden Falcons celebrate.
Moore jumps up and down, but it is fellow senior Charles Walker — the young man who nearly single-handedly orchestrated the team’s double-digit comeback — who is running down the sideline motioning to the crowd.
In that moment, the game, it seemed, belonged to the seniors that head coach David Elmore said before the start of season would make or break his team this year.
But the night itself belonged to someone else — a young man who wasn’t even on the Aycock bench Tuesday evening.
But the injured Golden Falcon’s teammates made sure No. 5 was represented in the team’s first game since he went down.
During warmups, players sported T-shirts that read “#ForTrever.”
His mother, Angela, had a front row seat and was visibly emotional when asked about what it meant to her to see Trever’s team rally behind him.
But the most telling moment unfolded after the final buzzer.
After the Golden Falcons shook hands with their opponents, they saw their assistant coach, A.J. Mundle, holding five fingers in the air.
They followed his lead and, as a unit, walked toward the crowd — raising their fallen brother’s jersey number skyward.
And when they learned that Trever had seen the end of the game via Facetime, they ran to the man holding the phone and celebrated with him.
It was a storybook ending.
The last-second victory offered the thrill people long for when they attend a sporting event.
But when those teenagers showed that they understood the bigger picture — when they took the time to share their win with the young man they had battled in honor of — it was a powerful reminder that student-athletes at Charles B. Aycock have perspective.
They showed it on the football field last season when starting quarterback Clay Matthews went down with a season-ending injury — and again when baseball player Adam Brogden’s mother passed away.
It was on display when basketball players let tears flow as Trever lay motionless on the hardwoods last week — and later that evening when they converged on Wayne Memorial Hospital to ensure their “brother” knew they would be with him during his recovery.
Aycock has a motto that surrounds the school logo. The words are simple and, some might argue, cliché.
“We are family,” it reads.
But when you witness, time after time, how students at the school pick each other up in their lowest moments, it’s hard to argue with the fact that these young people are clearly being taught that the motto is more than just words.
In Pikeville, it’s a way of life.
And that’s something principal Dr. Earl Moore, his staff, students, parents and alumni should take pride in.
Because it doesn’t exist everywhere.
For everybody outside of that family, a Golden Falcons’ basketball victory doesn’t mean much. But if you live in Wayne County, you should sleep a little better tonight knowing that this community’s biggest high school is teaching its students far more than a curriculum.
It’s teaching them a way of life that, one can hope, will make our small piece of this world a better place.
