Huntingtown, MD – In a span of 6 seconds, the cheers from the left side of the gym turned from joyous to disbelief after a game tying 3 pointer by Daquon Watts fell through the basket. Unfazed, Potomac quickly gathered the ball, raced the court, and with half a second left, Jason Newman was fouled while shooting, sending him to the line with two shots. The clock read 00.5.
To get to that point, we need to go back to tip off. Huntingtown won the tip, and set their offense against the taller, pressing Wolverine defenders. After several unsuccessful drives and kick-outs, they finally got an open shooter. Watts was that shooter, and he knocked down a three ball after a 37 second possession. Potomac took the ball, and turned it over quickly as Charlie Weber established himself in the paint with a lay in for 2. Huntingtown led 5-0 before a Potomac timeout. Following the timeout, Potomac turned up their press, and started running the floor. They had a 9-0 run to put them in the lead, and they didn’t relinquish it again. They led at the end of the first quarter 12-10.
In the second, both teams got sloppy with many turnovers, missed free throws, or bad shots. Potomac capitalized on their possessions a little more frequently than the Canes did as their lead grew to 8 at half. The score was set at 25-17, and Huntingtown’s crowd was in shock as they hadn’t expected the score to be like this.
In the third quarter, Potomac built their lead to 14 as the Canes struggled against the press to even get shots up. Meanwhile, the height advantage for Potomac on the other end was proving to be too much. Seemingly every lay-up the Wolverines attempted found pay dirt, and the Canes were becoming more and more visibly frustrated. Going into the final quarter, the score was 42-31, and any chance of a comeback looked bleak.
Enter Daquon Watts. Watts had been silent since his first shot of the game. But received a free look and pulled the trigger on the opening possession of the quarter, and suddenly the Canes were in business. On their next possession, DJ Hopkins threw down a two handed dunk to bring the game to 7 and swung the momentum to the Canes. Huntingtown finally found ways to attack the Wolverines defense, and as a result, DaVaughn Reid got into the scoring column to bring the game to 3 with a little over a minute left. Both teams had 3 possessions until Huntingtown took in a missed free throw and Watts sunk the tying 3 point basket. Jason Newman took the ball up court and went up for a layup, and was fouled by Weber with half a second left. He stepped to the line in a tie game, and received the ball. He missed the first shot as the ball ran around the rim and off. When he received the ball for his second shot, the gym was deafening as the Cane crowd was doing everything they could to distract him. He calmly went about his routine and sunk the free throw to put them up by one. A missed alley-oop followed and the Wolverines escaped with a 54-53 victory.
The Canes season ended a little earlier than expected, but with a conference title on the banner. Hopkins led the team in scoring with 15 points, and Watts had 14 of his own. The Wolverines were led in scoring by Travis Henson who scored 15, as well as Gary Robertson who also had 15. They will play their third straight SMAC team, in St. Charles, in the section final this Thursday at 6:30.