Long Reach senior guard Reece Thimote sprinted toward the low block in help-side defense with his team trailing North County by one late in Friday night’s game.
The Knights’ Carlo Pineda, who had terrorized the Lightning up to that point with 30 points, found a seam and drove toward the hoop. However, Thimote beat him to the spot and took the charge with 36.5 seconds remaining, giving Long Reach possession and, more importantly, fouling out Pineda in midst of a lights-out performance.
On the ensuing possession, Long Reach turned to another senior in a critical moment: guard Lamar Atkinson. Taking a pass from Thimote, Atkinson rose up for a 3-pointer from straight on.
The shot rattled out, but Atkinson was fouled and headed to the line for three shots. Atkinson was 2-for-4 at the line before those attempts, but locked in when it mattered most. As his dad taught him, Atkinson stepped off the free-throw line and took a second to remove himself from all the chaos around him. He remained cool, calm and collected and sunk all three free throws to put Long Reach ahead by two with 17.2 seconds left.
“I just took a deep breath in and was thinking about all the memories,” Atkinson said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I got to close this game out.’ I was cold all night, I didn’t hit as many shots as I needed to. After the first free throw I was like, ‘Alright tie the game up. Now, I got to seal the deal.’”
North County had a chance to tie when Josiah Bryant was fouled with six seconds left. His first shot rimmed out and while he connected on the second, the Lightning held on for a thrilling 67-66 win on senior night.
With all the pageantry and fanfare surrounding senior night, there was an added excitement in the air as Lightning senior guard Daniel Best entered the contest 13 points away from reaching 1,000 career points. Best picked up his fourth foul late in the third quarter and sat on the bench for several minutes.
However, with North County surging, Lightning coach Andrew Lazzor reinserted Best and trusted the experienced guard to battle through that foul trouble. Best immediately drained a corner 3-pointer to officially take his place in the 1,000-point club and become the first player in Lazzor’s 10 years leading the Lightning to accomplish that feat.
“It’s not like I’m catching ball thinking, ‘I need this for 1,000.’ It’s more, I need this to win the game,’” Best said. “I can’t lie; I felt a little bit of pressure. In the moment, that’s what it comes with. I embrace all that. For it to be a 3-pointer, that’s my bread and butter. That’s my go-to shot. It makes it all the more special.”
That triple seemed to reinvigorate Best and his team as he followed it up with a 4-point play and two more layups to keep pace with North County’s surging offense in a high-scoring fourth quarter. Best scored the Lightning’s opening 11 points of the final frame, but the free-flowing Knights answered every basket with one of their own.
Pineda continued to feast from all over the floor, getting to his spot at will. While Best paced Long Reach’s offense early in the fourth, sophomore Josh Hurd supplemented that effort. The dynamic, high-flying sophomore missed several in-tight opportunities earlier in the contest but put up nine of his 26 points in the final period.
Despite the Lightning’s success offensively, they struggled to string together consecutive stops and the sea-saw affair continued. Multiple Knights fouled out in the fourth quarter; however, none was more impactful than Pineda’s absence on North County’s final possession.
While the Knights entered the contest with just three wins, they gave Long Reach everything they could handle and pushed them to the brink. However, the Lightning (11-10) found a way and closed out their fifth straight win. Despite the victory, the Lightning know there’s plenty of work to do with one regular season game remaining at Guilford Park on Monday.
Then, it’s playoff time where the Lightning’s focus turns to extending the season as long as possible where extra practices are no longer a guarantee and need to be earned.
“We mentioned from the beginning of the year, we’re on a steady incline,” Lazzor said. “We need to be getting better every day in practice so that by late February early March we’re playing our best basketball. I thought we were on that track until tonight. Hopefully this is a little set back and then we can get our act together tomorrow at practice and Monday for our last regular season game.”
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LR- 18 15 10 24- 67
NC- 15 10 20 21- 66
LR: Josh Hurd 26, Daniel Best 21, Lamar Atkinson 13, Reece Thimote 4, Logan Plummer 2, Jayce Howard 1.
NC: Carlo Pineda 30, Josiah Bryant 14, Vanshdeep Singh 12, Kob Owiredu 6, Raheim Mitchell 4.