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"COME-BACK" HUSKIES WIN 64-63 AT PARADISE--ROACH REACHES #100 VICTORIES

In the most thrilling 'come-back' of the season, the North Huskies battled back from 16 points down with barely a minute remaining in the third period to thump the Castle Knights 64-63 on the road at Paradise.  Head coach Jason Roach earned his 100th career victory in the contest when sophomore Brayden Huebner sank a free throw with 1.8 seconds remaining to complete a most improbable come back.  The hostile home crowd filled the arena with cat-calls and foul-mouthed chants as the game finished and the Huskies had to be hustled to their locker room and then taken out by a different exit than normal to avoid the home team Knights who, along with their fans, were anxious to express their disappointment with the outcome.

The come back began with North trailing 49-33 and the clock running out on the third quarter.  Huebner drew a foul from a Knight defender as he dribbled down the left side of the court in front of the Castle cheering section.  The Castle defender, despite being ahead by 16 points in the game, earned a technical foul from the official by verbalizing his feelings of disappointment with the call in a manner that the referee found unsportsmanlike in its content.  The foul was Castle's seventh of the half and Huebner sank his first free throw and then the bonus.  He then drew nothing but net on both the technical free throws.  North took the ball out at half court due to the technical and the Huskies worked it to senior Cameron Gelhausen who sank a three point shot.  What had been an insurmountable 16 point deficit had become a single digit lead for the Knights in under 30 seconds of playing time.

With the home crowd screaming their displeasure with the officiating, it was the Huskies who were ignited by the elevated emotions in the gymnasium.  Over the game's final 8 minutes North sank nine of their final ten shots as they ran down the Knights.  Even that phenomenal shooting would not have been enough had the Husky back court of Huebner and senior Jewellz Hailey not combined to shut-down the scoring by Castle in the game's final three minutes.  When a Castle guard extended the lead back to eight points with a three point basket with three minutes on the clock, he extended his arms in a victory celebration in front of the Knights' student section and strutted down the court as though he had just hit the 'game winner'.  The celebration was a bit premature as the Knights were only able to get one more shot at the basket for the remainder of the game.

In the final minutes, senior Mason Wick got open underneath and fellow senior Aidan Blackford fed him the ball for a lay in to cut the lead to six points.  Huebner and Hailey smothered the Knights and forced bad passes that Blackford twice stepped in front of.  On the first he fed Huebner the ball on the wing and the sophomore cut the lead in half with a three.  On the second, Blackford found Gelhausen open on the opposite side of the court and he tied the game at 61 with the Huskies' final three and less than a minute to play.

The din from both student sections was roaring as North came up with the ball again and this time it was Blackford who drew the foul.  He buried both free throws to give North its first lead since early in the game.  The Knights finally broke through the defense and managed a bucket with 8 seconds left to tie the game at 63.

Following a timeout, Huebner found himself with the ball as the clock wound down under four seconds and he drove to the left side of the lane.  The same guard who had celebrated his premature game winner a few minutes earlier was whistled for a foul as Huebner dribbled to the basket.  The noise level and intensity of the crowd was deafening as the sophomore sank the second of two free throws for the winning margin.  Castle got the ball out and missed a desperation shot at the buzzer.  A Knight was whistled for a technical foul after the game ended for pursuing the official off the court to heatedly discuss his disagreement with the foul call.  The Castle coaching staff then expressed their displeasure (in a rather hostile fashion) with the post-game departure of the Huskies from the court and school officials had to remind all parties involved that the game was over and it was time to exit the arena.

North came back from 16 points down to beat an opponent on the road who shot 59% from the field, made 8 of 14 three's, sank 11 of 13 free throws, and had an equal number of turnovers and rebounds to North.  Not many teams could lose a game with those numbers on their side.

It was once again "Husky-Time-In-Paradise".

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