Following a streak of losses, McLean’s boys basketball team was set to face the Yorktown Patriots on senior night. This was both a rivalry game and a revenge game for the Highlanders after losing by ten less than a month ago, McLean was ready to avenge themselves.
“We saw them before and we knew what to do differently this time,” senior gourd Logan Baldrate. “We knew coming into this game that it was going to be challenging and physical, but we practiced for it.”
After the senior night festivities, a starting five of all seniors stepped on the court and the game commenced. The first quarter was all back and forth, with both teams playing lockdown defense and trading the occasional bucket. The quarter ended with McLean edging a 13-12 lead.
The second quarter was the same, with McLean and Yorktown trading buckets. The Highlanders brought in their dominant sophomore stars Kael Adda and Nahom Kidane who both made impactful plays on both sides of the ball. A last second two stretched McLean’s lead to three at the half at 27-24, but there was still lots of basketball to be played.
“We had a good first half but we wanted [the lead] to be larger,” senior JW Riggins said. “Ideally we would’ve been up by six or seven but we were happy with the lead we had and knew we had to hold.”
McLean came out of the half hot, banging a three and getting a momentum-shifting charge from senior Jake Bell. The momentum didn’t last, as Yorktown ran down the court and made back-to-back three pointers to tie the game up.
Head Coach Mike O’Brien utilized a majority of the lineup in substitutions, bringing players in and out for a couple minutes at a time. Yorktown hit a crucial layup with ten seconds left in the third quarter to take the lead, but the next possession Bell blocked a Yorktown three pointer into the stands to end the quarter and build momentum into the final quarter with a score of 37-36 Yorktown.
The fourth started with McLean momentum, but it quickly faded as Yorktown banged two tough layups. The score shifted back and forth and momentum followed with it. No team could edge out a big enough lead, and the score was all tied at 49-49.
With 20 seconds on the clock, McLean inbounded the ball but found no shot and quickly called a timeout. Then, they did it again, and the same followed. With 8 seconds left, they inbounded for a third time and found Iftoni for a floating two to take the lead with less than three seconds left.
McLean’s students and players jumped up and down as Yorktown called a timeout, scrambling for how to score in only 2.4 seconds. The inbound came in, and Yorktown’s point guard heaved a shot from three quarters of the court. All eyes followed the ball, as it traveled to the backboard and eventually into the hoop, giving Yorktown a 52-51 thriller of a win.
“There’s honestly nothing we could have done at that moment,” Baldrate said. “We needed to prevent ourselves from being in that position and we didn’t.”
McLean faces Herndon on Feb 17 in the first round of districts. With a win, they can move closer to clinching regionals and replicating the success of last year.
“This game has to be a comeback game for us,” Riggins said. “We lost to them a week ago by only five; we know what we have to do to beat them and help shift momentum into the later rounds of the postseason.”
