With less than a minute remaining in the third quarter, the Eastern Wayne basketball team was in control.
The Warriors enjoyed a double-digit lead in their rival’s gym.
Goldsboro High School hadn’t found and answer for EW big man Devin Brown all night.
But at the end of the quarter, the Cougars’ head coach, Jamaal Croom, told his team they were going to find a way to get the victory — that if they stayed together, they could pull off what looked like an unlikely comeback.
“I told them we were going to win this game,” he said. “I told them that.”
His players responded.
GHS clawed its way back and tied the game with under a minute to play, but when Xavion Atkinson missed an open three-pointer with 14 seconds remaining in regulation and EW guard Wesley Case made a layup on the other end of the floor — taking a foul in the process and converting the three-point play — it looked like the Warriors might finally put an end to the heartache their rival first inflicted on them this fall, when a Hail Mary thrown by the Cougars’ sophomore quarterback, Tay Hooker, was caught at the end of the EW/GHS football game.
But moments later, the Warriors collapsed on guard JaeQuan Graham, who found senior Jykeis Mclean for an open look at the game-tying basket.
The young man let it fly.
“I wasn’t thinking about it,” said Mclean, who poured in 20 points for the Cougars in the final matchup against Eastern Wayne of his career. “I just let it go.”
And as the clock expired, the ball went through the net.
“I never hit a shot like that. Nah, not one like that,” Mclean said. “It’s a blessing.”
The Cougars would go on to win 86-80 in overtime and for the first time in recent memory, the student section rushed the floor.
Croom took it all in.
“It says a lot about our team. We could have easily laid down, but the way we responded in that fourth quarter, it’s contagious. It gives the community a lot to be proud of. It gives the players a lot to be proud of,” he said. “It’s like I told the guys, ‘Those people just spent their hard-earned money and that was probably the best $7 they’ve spent in their lifetime.’”
And when he was asked about Mclean hitting the biggest shot fans have witnessed inside the Cougar Den in years, Croom repeated a mantra he has been preaching to his players since the offseason.
“I tell the guys, I say, ‘You’re different than them. You’re different.’ And they just showed it,” he said. “I have 14 or 15 guys that are capable on any given night of stepping up. I’m just proud I got to witness something like that. I’m proud that I got to coach something like that. They’ve got a coach that, I never quit. If they see that I don’t quit, they’re not going to quit. Ever.”
WORTH NOTING:
Devin Brown scored 34 points for the Warriors, including an emphatic two-handed jam that quieted the GHS student section.
Jykeis Mclean was the leading scorer for the Cougars with 20 points, including the buzzer-beating three-pointer that sent the game into overtime.
UP NEXT:
The Cougars will play in the annual University of Mount Olive Winter Classic. They open the tournament Dec. 26 at 3 p.m. against Wayne Christian.
The Warriors host national powerhouse Kinston Friday night.
