A major sigh of relief was let out by an entire East Hamilton squad after Darwin Randolph rose high to tip in the go-ahead basket with 6.3 seconds left to play against an archrival.
Randolph crashed the middle of the paint with no defenders boxing out on Jamaal Walker’s 3-point attempt and timed his leap and swat perfectly to sink Ooltewah’s chances of a road upset.
The Hurricanes’ hero walked away thankful to help keep his side undefeated in the District 5-AAA standings as all 10 of his points were needed to pull out a 52-51 victory Friday night.
“Man, this is absolutely crazy,” Randolph said moments after the Owls could not get off a shot in time at the final buzzer. “We played terrible tonight, but we pulled it together. We stuck together as a team and did what we needed to do to win this rivalry game.”
East Hamilton (14-3, 6-0) could not find a rhythm offensively against the motivated Owls, who were able to take the driving lanes away and draw numerous charges.