CLEVELAND, Tenn. - East Hamilton's Cam Montgomery was as stoic talking about his heroics after Friday's District 5-AAA boys' high school basketball game at Cleveland as he was delivering them.
Montgomery's two free throws with 2.2 seconds remaining lifted the unranked Hurricanes to a 78-77 victory over the state's No. 5-rated team.
East Hamilton (20-6, 9-1) has a district home game Monday with Bradley Central and a road trip to Walker Valley next Friday. Should the Hurricanes win both, they'll tie Cleveland (21-3, 11-1), which has completed its league schedule, for the district regular-season title.
The Blue Raiders had gone up by one on K.K. Curry's dunk with 1:20 to play. East Hamilton had possession nearly all of the final minute but didn't attempt a shot. Ultimately with time winding down late, Montgomery drove the lane and was fouled. After sitting through a Cleveland timeout, the sophomore calmly made both free throws.
"I was just trying to correctly remember my routine," the soft-spoken Montgomery said. "I was thinking about all that work in practice."
East Hamilton coach Rodney English said other than Justin Dozier, the floor leader who led five Hurricanes in double-figure scoring with 19 points, there's no one else he would've wanted at the line in that situation.
"He's always so even-keeled," English said of Montgomery. "He's so calm."
Despite Montgomery's feat, the 'Canes almost didn't get to celebrate after winning a game that featured eight ties and 10 lead changes - almost 11.
After a timeout, Cleveland's Romeo Wykle threw a long inbound pass to Curry around the top of the key at the other end. Curry spun, took one dribble to his left and put up a leaner from the left elbow that was on line but bounced off the front of the rim.
"A game like this is going to come down to a late turnover or a late foul, which is what ended up happening," Cleveland coach Jason McCowan said. "I thought with 2.2 seconds left we executed about as good a play as we could get."
The teams split during the year, with the Blue Raiders winning 79-71 at East Hamilton on Jan. 10.
"We went back and looked at the video, and we knew we could win if we just cut down our turnovers and negative plays," English said. "I thought we were the better team. Every time they made a run, it came off our negative plays."
Noah Fager scored his 16 points over the middle two quarters for the 'Canes. Montgomery totaled 15, Sam Randolph had 13 off the bench and DaVae Hughley scored 10.
Cleveland's Deontae Davis made seven 3-point goals and ended up with 22 points, making one of two free throws in potential four-point-play situations. Curry and Dionte Ware each added 17.
"We've accomplished our first goal, which is to be in the region tournament," McCowan said. "We were kind of playing with house money. But we wanted the taste of victory, which is a lot better than the taste of defeat."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.