It looked as though the game was over.
The Charlottesville girls basketball team owned a 48-44 lead with less than 10 seconds left Tuesday night against district rival Monticello, but the Mustangs had other ideas.
Molly Sheppard nailed a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to one with five seconds left, prompting Monticello coach Josh McElheny to call a timeout.
The Black Knights then turned it over on the ensuing inbounds play, giving the Mustangs a chance to win it with 1.3 seconds remaining.
The inbounds pass went to junior Bridget Holleran, who was well behind the 3-point line and at an odd angle. With little time, Holleran took the only shot she had. The ball clanked off of the backboard and fell through the net, giving the Mustangs an improbable 50-48 win.
“I don’t know what was going through my head, all I know is we needed to knock a shot down,” Holleran said. “I didn’t have a good look. I kind of just threw it up and it went in.”
Added McElheny: “We threw it to the only open person we had and she took the only open look we had. It had absolutely nothing to do with anything I did, we just made the only shot we had the opportunity to make.”
The win was the Mustangs’ fifth in a row in the district and their second over Charlottesville this season.
The Black Knights looked strong early as they jumped out to a 28-22 halftime lead behind strong play inside from London Todd and Sydney Calloway. Todd and Calloway combined for 17 first-half points but were quiet in the second half. Monticello came out strong on the defensive end in the third quarter and did not allow a point until the 2:15 mark.
Charlottesville (7-12, 3-6) led 36-31 after three quarters and then 38-31 before Monticello (12-9, 8-2) tied the game at 42-42 with a Meghan Comer 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter.
The Mustangs ended the game on a 19-10 run to squeak by with the two-point win.
“Our girls just never gave up,” McElheny said. “It was senior night and we told them to just go out there and have a good time, we’ve done the work and we haven’t given up all year long.”
Comer led the way for Monticello as she scored a game-high 16 points while Holleran put in 14.
Calloway and Todd each scored 12 points for the Black Knights while Monique Perkins added 13.
Both teams will be back in action in the Jefferson District tournament.
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