It will be difficult to refrain from just doing a play-by-play of this entire game, or from simply saying, “You gotta see this to believe it, go check out our highlight video.” But we’ll try to refrain—in what was undoubtedly the most exciting game of the season, the Millikan Rams boys’ basketball team rose on the shoulders of their top scorer, Kierre Beverly, and a new hero, Reggie Givens, whose last-millisecond three-pointer capped a 53-51 upset stunner that bring the Rams up to 5-4, and drop the ‘Rabbits to 7-2 with their second consecutive league loss.
The game started out unusually—Poly’s guards, normally reliable shooters, were ice cold, and Millikan rode that, along with some excellent work on the offensive boards, to a 15-2 start to the game, silencing the home crowd. It was 22-10 Millikan at the end of the first quarter, and Poly hadn’t gotten any scoring from their guards until there were just three seconds left in the first period, when Michael Mayes put in two of his five on the game—the other eight points in the first for Poly came from Ryan Anderson and Julian Camper, who did what they could from down low.
It wasn’t until about three minutes into the second quarter that the ‘Rabbits managed to score from outside the key, off a Ryan Anderson jumper. With their offense so one-dimensional, the Rams continued to take away the inside, while Beverly spurred the Rams’ offensive assault on—he had 18 points in the first half, a sizable percentage of his team’s 29. Thanks to the efforts of Anderson and Campter, who combined for eight in the second quarter, Poly was down by just seven at intermission.
In the third, Ronald Nezey, a senior guard for Poly who came off the bench, took things into his own hands, giving the ‘Rabbits the outside presence they’d been lacking all night—Nezey knocked down two three-pointers to start the third, and then Julian Camper added two on top, tying the score at 29 with a 7-0 run with 5:14 left in the third. Millikan coach Jeff Breuklander called timeout—when play resumed, Millikan went on a quick 7-0 run of their own, before Nezey dropped another three, followed by teammate Robert Nixon. The score was 36-35 Millikan, and then Alexis Moore scored his only points of the game, an off-balance, bank-shot, buzzer-beating three pointer that gave Poly their first lead of the game, 38-36.
Poly went to the press in the fourth, and had some success disrupting Millikan’s flow, but Beverly refused to let his team fall out of it, scoring in every way possible to keep the game from getting too one-sided—he stole the ball and dunked it, he knocked down his free throws, he hit jumpers, and he ran the length of the floor. Nezey was toe-to-toe (he had nine points in the fourth to Beverly’s ten), and his seven straight points with just over two minutes left gave Poly a 49-43 lead. Later, with just 1:07 remaining, a six-point lead, and the ball, Poly’s Moore was whistled for an offensive foul on the inbound pass, giving Millikan the ball. Beverly immediately sank a three, making it 51-48. Then the Rams fouled on the inbound, sending Camper to the line—after he missed on the front-end of a one-and-one, Beverly grabbed the rebound and went coast-to-coast, scoring a deuce himself to make it 51-50.
Poly completed the inbound, and Moore, trying to make a play to drain more time off the clock, hurled the ball downcourt to Greg Robinson—Millikan’s Alden Darby intercepted it, and dished to Beverly, who missed a pullup jumper. The rebound bounced towards ‘Rabbits Moore and Anderson, with Millikan’s Andrew Scott in between. The ball bounced off Moore and out of bounds—it was now Millikan’s ball, with 10.3 seconds left, down 51-50. Poly only had two team fouls at this point, so they had plenty to give.
The inbound was clean, and the Rams got the ball to Beverly, whose awkward leaner was partially blocked by Poly’s Shelton Boykin—the ricochet caromed off of Poly’s Camper and Boykin, and Millikan’s Devon James, and took one bounce towards Reggie Givens of the Rams. Givens caught the ball moving laterally and threw it up without ever really grabbing it, with less than a second on the clock—he got the shot off before the buzzer, and, stunningly, it went through. The Rams and their fans exploded onto the court in celebration, mobbing Givens at halfcourt. Millikan got the win, 53-51.
After the game, Givens couldn’t believe it had happened. “I didn’t think it was going in,” he said. “I was just trying to get a shot off.”
Coach Breuklander seemed just as incredulous after, fielding congratulations from players, parents, and family. “We’ve finished well by finishing games fighting,” he said. “As much as we fought, we earned it. We were lucky they were missing early, we let them back in, but we kept going.” Of Beverly’s performance, 33 points (a league high for the season), he put it simply: “We go as he goes.” Only one Ram besides Beverly scored in the second, third, and fourth quarter, and the lanky guard accounted for over 60% of the Rams’ points, so there’s no denying that.
Poly’s head coach, Sharrief Metoyer, walked out of the locker room slowly, after his players had filed out ahead of him, looking shell-shocked to have lost a second league contest (the Wilson loss was only by three points). “A loss like that is heartbreaking,” he said. “Especially because we dug a deep hole and we managed to climb out of it. It’s really disheartening.” Of his guards’ cold shooting, Metoyer pointed out that Poly put up 87 points against a quality Campbell Hall squad on Saturday. “I didn’t think we’d come out shooting like that. You never know till you play the next game.”
Poly’s next game will be Wednesday, on the road against the Jordan Panthers, in a game to decide who sits in first place. Millikan, who may have the easiest schedule of the top four teams in the league, will visit the winless Cabrillo Jaguars.
Besides Beverly’s 33, the game’s other leaders were Givens, with 12 points including the game-winner, Camper for Poly with ten, and Nezey with 23.
Oh, and seriously: make sure you watch the highlight. The finish is seriously nuts.