Grafton point guard Tyler McMillan says he loves stepping to the free-throw line in crunch time because he feels he performs best under pressure.
Good thing for the Clippers, because on a night where seemingly no one on either side could put the ball in the hoop, McMillan didn’t miss when it mattered most.
“I like being at the free-throw line with the game on the line,” said McMillan, who calmly sank 4-4 attempts from the charity stripe in the final 20 seconds of regulation to seal a 41-38 victory that came down to the final seconds. “Both teams played great defense all game, which is why everyone was struggling, including myself.
“We just found a way to win.”
With 35 seconds to play, Grafton was clinging to a three-point lead (37-34) after star forward Elijah Moore (10 points), who was just 3-11 shooting from the field, missed the front end of a 1-and-1 at the line.
Bruton’s Kapri Doucet was fouled on the Panthers’ ensuing possession trimmed Grafton’s lead to 37-35 after knocking down 1-2 attempts.
Bruton was then forced to foul, which sent McMillan to the line for his first pair.
Following a Bruton timeout, the Panthers missed two attempts from long range before leading scorer Marcus Carter was fouled from beyond the arc with 12 seconds left. Carter coolly swished all three to bring Bruton within one, 39-38.
After McMillan buried another pair to push the Clippers’ lead back to three with 10 seconds remaining, the game ended after Larry Legaspi’s last-second heave from deep clanked off the back of the rim.
With the victory, Grafton (15-2, 12-0 BRD), after pushing its unblemished Bay Rivers’ record to a district-best 12-0, appears to be a lock to defend its district title barring any unforeseen slip-ups the rest of the way.
Bruton dropped to 10-2 with the loss, although the Panthers can pretty much assure themselves a No. 2 seed in the district with a win Friday against third-place Warhill (7-4 BRD).
“It was huge,” McMillan said of the victory. “We still have to play Warhill again, they gave us a tough game the first time we played, but this puts us in good shape the rest of the way.”
Clippers’ coach Jeremy Jordan said the outcome was a testament to his team’s big-game experience as four out of the five starters on the team played key roles in last year’s run to the Group AA state-championship game.
“These kinds of games can happen when you put together two great defensive teams that have both won games on that side of the court,” Jordan said. “We’ve been in so many big games that are either close, on the road or in a hostile environment, I guess you could say the experience factor played a big hand for us tonight.”
Bruton fed off its home crowd early as Carter sparked the Panthers out to a 9-1 run to open the game, but Grafton would climb back quickly thanks to athletic forward Jesse Santiago, who contributed five points in the opening period.
After shooting a respectable 6-13 from the floor to take a 14-13 lead after the first quarter, Bruton completely lost its shooting touch in the second, and it never returned.
After making two 3-point buckets in the first quarter, the Panthers shot 0-10 from long range the rest of the way before finishing the game with a field goal percentage under 35 percent (14-43).
Grafton wasn’t much more efficient, although managed to outscore Bruton a whopping 7-4 in the second quarter to claim a 20-18 halftime lead.
The Panthers scored just four points for the second-straight quarter in the third, but clamped down defensively to force five Grafton turnovers in the period to keep things close, 28-22, heading into the final eight minutes of play.
After Moore opened the fourth with his first and only 3-pointer of the game, Sangalang scored back-to-back tough buckets inside to make the score 33-26.
After a Lonnie Swinton layup, Carter then ignited the crowd with a two-handed dunk off a steal to make it a one-possession game, 33-30.
After Grafton went back up five, 35-30, on an inside bucket from Santiago, Bruton would only muster one more field goal the rest of the way courtesy of Sangalang, who was in the only Panther in double figures with 10 points.
A balanced scoring effort help the Clippers pick up the slack for Moore, who finished well below his 20-plus points per game scoring average. Moore, McMillan and Miller each finished with 10 while Santiago chipped in with a hard-earned nine.
“I don’t think either side ever managed to get into any sort of rhythm offensively,” Jordan added. “Good teams find a way to win the not-so-pretty basketball games, and we were fortunate enough to do that tonight.”
Grafton 41 Bruton 38
Grafton- 13 7 8 13 – 41
Bruton- 14 4 4 16 – 38
Grafton (15-2, 13-0 BRD)- Moore 10, McMillan 10, Miller 10, Santiago 9, Sperling 2. Totals 14 10-18; 41.
Bruton (10-2 BRD)- Sangalang 10, Carter 7, Swinton 7, Wade 5, Doucet 5, Simmons 4. Totals 13 8-8; 38.
