With his team trailing by one point and just 41 seconds remaining, Brainerd basketball coach Robert High couldn’t have felt more confident.
Knowing Jabari Evans, the school’s career free-throw-percentage leader, was about to step to the line for five free throws, High believed the game was all but in hand.
Evans, a 6-foot-2 senior wing, had been fouled on a 3-point attempt and Tyner’s Jemicah Bowman was called for a technical foul. The Panthers’ 86-percent foul shooter sank all five attempts, and on the ensuing Brainerd possession he hit another two to pace a 64-56 District 6-AA victory over the eighth-ranked Rams.
“There’s nobody we would want stepping to the line more than that kid in that situation,” High said. “He’s as automatic as there is.”
The teams traded the lead six times in the fourth quarter and were tied four other times.