Two area high school basketball giants, Wayland and Godwin Heights, did not disappoint a packed house Friday in the grand finale of the Cornerstone High School Holiday hoops tournament.
The undefeated combatants battled down to the wire in a wild, see-saw contest that offered fans everything they could want, and it wasn’t decided until 2.1 seconds left in the ballgame, when Godwin’s Markeese Hastings dropped in a putback of a rebound to give his team a 69-67 victory.
It was a bitter verdict for the Wildcats, who early in the fourth quarter went on an offensive tear to take a 64-54 lead with just 5:56 left to play. Senior point guard Avery Hudson scored eight unanswered points on two threes and a driving layup to stake his teammates to the only double digit advantage for either team during the evening.
But in the end, it all came down to what it so often does — free throws.
Wayland’s lead gradually was whittled down to nothing with a minute and a half showing on the clock. Besides costly turnovers, they missed four of their last five free throw attempts, an uncustomary development for team that does pretty well at the line.
Hudson, normally a virtual deadeye at the charity stripe, missed the front end of a one-and-one while the two teams were deadlocked at 67-all and 16.4 seconds showed on the clock. That set the stage for Hastings’ last-ditch heroics.
While free throws were Wayland’s biggest headache down the stretch, intercepted passes and turnovers plagued the team throughout the first half. The Wolverines, a team blessed with massive speed and talent, were incredibly unforgiving in turning the turnovers into easy, fast-break baskets. Other teams turn turnovers into opportunities, Godwin virtually always turns them into two points.
Wayland was able to take a 21-20 lead at the end of a fast-paced first quarter, but the bad passes and resultant fast breaks enabled the Wolverines to mount a 42-36 lead at intermission.
Coach Mike Hudson was able to regroup his charges, who somehow slowed the tempo a bit, cut down on offensive mistakes and held Godwin to just eight points during the entire third period. They entered the final eight minutes up 53-50, first time this season Godwin has been behind at such a late juncture.
But the layups off turnovers revisited the Wildcats at a terrible time and enabled the Wolverines to methodically close the gap and set the stage for the photo finish.
Zack Nieuwkoop, Wayland’s 6-7 senior center, played a monster game, scoring 27 points and collecting 11 rebounds. Yet he missed two free throws down that nightmare stretch of the fourth quarter.
Hudson counted 22 points with three threes and he came up with eight rebounds and seven assists.
Wayland finished the evening making only four of nine free throw attempts and was outrebounded 38-32.
Junior Carter Nyp drilled a couple of three-pointers and had eight points and fellow super sub Auston Whitley nailed a pair of threes.
But Godwin had three guys in double figures and two others who were close. Lamar Norman led the parade with 22 points, Hastings had 19, Christian Rodriguez 11, Sinque Spiegner nine and Kelvyn Valdez eight. The 6-6 Hastings also had 14 rebounds.
Godwin has been a thorn in the side of the Wildcats over the past couple of seasons. The Wolverines beat Wayland in overtime during the regular season and in the district tournament finals in 2015 and they prevailed again in the districts last March.
Wayland will not see them in the districts next March because they will be in a different bracket.
The Wildcats will be off until Friday, Jan. 6, when they open O-K Gold Conference action against South Christian. Wayland ended the evening with a 3-1 overall record. Godwin is 5-0.
PHOTOS: Zack Nieuwkoop (left) and Avery Hudson, not surprisingly, both were named to the Cornerstone Holiday Hoops tourney all-star team. (File photos by Kenny Ritz)