After witnessing his team lose a 10-point lead in a section matchup with Highlands, Burrell’s Trey Coury found himself with the ball in his hands in the final 10 seconds of a tie game Friday night.
Isolated on Golden Rams guard Ty Hall, Coury made his move. The Buccaneers guard drove left but was cut off perfectly by Hall.
Coury countered with a spin to the right, and after getting a step on Hall, he ripped through the second cut-off attempt and powered in for an and-1 with four seconds remaining.
The Burrell fans erupted in the stands as Coury went to the line to potentially give his team a three-point lead. He banked in the free throw, and after a missed last-second heave from Highlands, Burrell walked out of Highlands’ gym with a 42-39 win.
When asked if the play was intended for him to take the shot, Coury said, “No, definitely not.
“I mean, originally 40 seconds we’re trying to go get our two and then make a defensive play. But, I mean, we were able to keep the ball, which obviously worked in our favor. And then 10 seconds left, we get the timeout, we make a couple of decisions on the bench and then I just see a lane open, take it.”
Coury’s clutch three points to end the game gave him 10 on the night. It also gave Burrell (8-7, 4-2) its fifth win in its last six outings.
“Yeah, we talk about resiliency a lot with our team,” coach Mike Fantuzzo said. “We’ve seen a 10-point lead disappear before, and we lose the game. So I’m super proud of them, how they kept their cool.”
The Buccaneers led for all but two minutes in the fourth quarter. After Coury extended Burrell’s lead to 10 on a layup with 2:52 remaining in the third quarter, Highlands’ defensive pressure and hustle thrust it back into the game.
From the 2:05 mark of the third to the 3:35 mark of the fourth, the Golden Rams went on a 16-4 run.
During that stretch, Troy Bielak (11 points and 10 rebounds) made several key defensive plays and timely buckets. Highlands’ only lead of the night came after Bielak drove left and hit a scoop shot to make it 39-37 with 3:30 left.
A scoring drought hit both teams over the next two minutes until Adam Wass (game-high 16 points) got a steal, getting Coury in the open court for a layup to knot the score 39-39. Then Coury worked his magic to fend off the rallying Golden Rams.
“I mean, yeah, it definitely takes a bunch of resilience,” Coury said. “Great defense from Sam (Conte), Adam (Wass), the whole team all game. Adam got that big steal once we were down two. We tied it up there. That’s huge for our momentum. They were on a little bit of a run, that stopped the run. That was huge for our momentum. And then just staying together as a team. Ryan (Wass) was great leadership on the bench or in the game, but when we called that time out, great leadership from everybody. Just a great team win.”
Conte, who finished with 14 points, said, “In my opinion, it’s all experience.
“We have an experienced team, and in my opinion, you have to be there to know what to do. You know you could simulate reps, but you can’t have those real repetitions (like) in a real game.”
Burrell will bank on its experience as it prepares to face the top two seeds in Section 1-4A — Knoch and North Catholic — next.
“You know, they’re clicking,” Fantuzzo said. “They’re playing really well together. And, you know, it just doesn’t get easier.”
“We got number one and number two coming up next week, back-to-back games. We’re just going to keep working. They work super hard in practice. I push them really hard, and we got to keep getting better to make a playoff push down the stretch here.”