ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Trailing by seven points with 34.4 seconds remaining in regulation, the Monroe High boys’ basketball team needed that much and overtime to win its fourth straight game.
Jamar Williams picked up a loose ball and finished in the lane with an and-1 for the eventual game winner as the Red Jackets downed Wilson Magnet in overtime, 79-76 Friday night.
“We don’t give up easily,” Williams said about the win. “We’re not a give up team. We all make great plays late in games.”
Coming out of a timeout trailing 76-74 with 45.4 seconds remaining, Williams scooped up a loose ball 22 feet from the basket, spun, took two dribbles and put up a shot that was one-third floater, one-third runner and one-third get-it done.
“I wanted to win so much that whatever I had to do under any circumstance I was just going to take it to the rack and score,” the junior forward explained. “Scoring was the only thing on my mind. Just take it to the rack. Just bring my team back.”
Jahmir Bloom converted a rebound and putback to pull Monroe within two, setting up the inbound play along the baseline.
“It was a split-second,” Williams said recalling the play. “I was about to foul him. Then I saw the ball go loose. I was just like, oh just be poised.”
Williams hit the first of two straight Monroe buckets from 3-point land to close the gap at the end of regulation.
“I can’t say enough about the resolve,” Monroe head coach Matt McCormick commented. “The thing that we talk about all the time is after the first quarter we said ‘we lost the first one; we need to win three in a row,’ We won the second and the third. I kept telling them we’re not going to lose this fourth quarter.”
Trailing 68-61, Williams connected from the right corner. After Wilson’s Desi Floyd converted 1-of-2 free throws, Fidel Brock hit from the left corner to cut the deficit to two with 8.3 seconds remaining.
Monroe’s defense forced a 5-second violation on the ensuing inbound, and De’vante Mateo sent the game to overtime with a bucket underneath.
“They responded as a team,” McCormick said of his squad. “That was the best team win we’ve had all year. Everybody played a role. We made big shots. That was it. We made big shots.”
Monroe led 45-44 at the end of the third quarter, but a 10-3 Wilson run midway through the quarter gave the Wildcats a 10-point advantage with 2:15 remaining.
Malikk Johnson hit a floater in the lane. Robert Davis converted a two-on-one break with Desi Floyd. Floyd hit one of two from the charity stripe. Davis grabbed a loose ball and went the length of the floor for a layup. Floyd converted another free throw, and Johnson gave Wilson a 64-54 lead with a pair of free throws.
Jo-Jo Jones started the Monroe rally with a scoop shot in the lane. Brock hit a pull-up 3-ball, and Mateo went the length of the floor for a layup to cut deficit to five at 66-61 with 47.3 remaining.
It appeared Wilson’s Maurice Young had iced the game with a pair of charity tosses, but the Red Jackets outscored Wilson 8-1 over the final 34.4 of regulation.
“We were able to do some subbing in and out with Kerone Kearse and Jahmir Bloom for defense and offense,” McCormick said of the late-game substitution pattern. “We never wavered on that. Everybody bought into the fact that this is my possession on defense. This is his possession on offense. We were able to force a couple of steals.”
Wilson led 76-72 with 55.4 seconds remaining in overtime to set up Williams and his heroics.
“At one point I thought our quarter has got to be up,” McCormick joked. “We came up with so many big shots. That steal and that shot and to convert the 3-point play was a dagger.”
The win was the fourth straight for Monroe (11-4) whose only losses in the past 12 games have come at the hands of East (14-0) and NE Douglass (11-3).
Mateo led Monroe with 27 points. Williams added 12. Ty Glasgow chipped in 11. Brock had nine points. Jones (6), Kearse (9), Trevone Glasgow (1) and Bloom (4) rounded out the scoring for Monroe.
Mateo fouled out with 55.4 seconds remaining in overtime. Ty Glasgow picked up his fifth infraction with 4.6 on the clock in the extra period.
Johnson paced Wilson (4-10) with 18 points. Davis had 15. Bradley, Floyd and Young added a dozen apiece. Christian Harmon scored three points. Latief Holmes and Arthur Wilson both chipped in with two points.
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