By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Ball teetered, suspended above the rim looking like it might release itself from inside the cylinder. Then, as if moved by an external force, changed course and slipped through the net.
Ball don’t lie.
Patrick Phillips grabbed his 12th rebound of the night and converted his 10 and 11th point as the horn sounded, and the No. 8-seed Wilson-Magnet Wildcats moved on to Saturday’s Class A2 championship with a 57-55 victory over No. 2-seed and reigning champion Batavia Blue Devils.
“It came up and it hung on the rim a little bit,” Phillips said. “I was so worried that it was going to roll out.”
Coming out of timeout with 27.9 seconds remaining and the game tied at 55, Mehki Walker drove right and put a shot up through a tangle of defenders. Phillips was there waiting to the left of the basket.
“My defender was off me trying to help, so I was pretty much wide open under the net,” Phillips said. “Honestly, I thought Mehki was going to get the foul call, and I was surprised.”
Phillips capped a wild final 12 minutes which saw Wilson-Magnet build a 10-point lead only to fall behind by six with less than three minutes remaining before ultimately advancing to its second straight sectional final appearance.
“I don’t know really if I can say enough,” Wilson-Magnet head coach Brendan O’Toole said of his team’s effort. “They didn’t give up. They really gutted it out. For them to gut it out the way they did probably being pretty fatigued, it shows a lot about their character and not giving up and just continuing to play hard.”
PATRICK PHILLIPS AT THE BUZZER! @wildcats_wilson 57 Batavia 55.? pic.twitter.com/hozLiURIcT
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 1, 2017
Robert Davis scored four of his team-high 17 points in the final 1:14 when he converted a quartet of free throws to tie knot the game at 55. A stop on the defensive end set up the winning play.
“We did what we wanted,” O’Toole explained. “We didn’t think they’d come out and pressure us. We just wanted to hold the ball, wait and take the last the shot. If we didn’t get the look we wanted, then we would go to overtime.
“They did a good job of keeping the ball out of Robert’s hands because we were going to run something where we could get him coming off and moving, but they took him out of it.”
Walker who scored 12 points on the night made the late decision to take the ball to the basket.
“He actually got a good look too,” O’Toole said of Walker’s attempt. “It was a soft shot. I thought that might roll in. Patrick was just huge in there.”
“I’m the one with the ball in the last seconds,” Walker said. “I was just praying that it would go in or somebody would have a putback. He was playing me to go to my right but he really just tried to stay in front of me, but I guess I just beat him to the point.
Desi Floyd put bookends on a 9-0 spurt midway through the third to give the Wildcats their largest lead of the game. The 5-foot-10 sophomore guard grabbed his own miss and finished at the rim. Anthony Jubray converted a three-point play, and Davis found Phillips inside for the deuce. Floyd’s second rebound and putback of the sequence made it 41-31 game.
Wilson won on a last-second shot against Batavia to reach the A2 Finals, but there was one play tonight that I’ve never seen in a HS game… pic.twitter.com/CqsPXMBUeV
— Prescott Rossi (@PrescottRossi) March 1, 2017
Moments later, Phillips went to the bench with his fourth foul of the night.
Batavia took advantage.
Tee-Sean Ayala scored the next seven points, and Jonathon Liciaga‘s follow up on the break tied the game at 41.
But the tables turned seconds later when Ayala was whistled for his fourth foul of the game. The Blue Devils leading scorer argued the call and was assessed a technical foul and was disqualified from the game.
Ayala left the game scoring 24 points.
Batavia looked momentarily inspired, and Naz Pratt‘s runner from just outside the lane gave the Blue Devils their largest lead of the night at 53-47.
Floyd snapped the 9-0 Batavia run. Moments later, Davis tied the game.
“When you’re down six with just over two, that’s a big deficit for that short amount of time,” O’Toole noted. “They didn’t give up. They kept playing hard.”
Batavia beat Wilson, 64-57 in last season’s A2 final. It was the Blue Devils sixth overall sectional title and third since 2009.
“They’re a tough team, so whenever you beat them, it does feel pretty good,” O’Toole said. “Beating them to go to the finals is even a little bit more rewarding. They’ve been pretty dominant. They’re always in the mix. Whether they win or not, they’re always a team you got to contend with.”
Floyd finished with 11 points on the night.
Liciaga scored 11 for Batavia.
Phillips recorded a double-double with 28 rebounds when Wilson upset top-seeded Leadership Academy in the quarter-final round.
Wilson-Magnet will take on No. 2-seed Wayne in Saturday’s final. The Wildcats will be looking for the school’s first championship since 2006 and seventh overall. A 2 pm tipoff is scheduled at Faiport High School.
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