There are highlight-reel dunks, and then there's what Lucas Brown did Thursday night.
The Red Bank junior's thunderous windmill slam put an exclamation point at the end of an 80-75 statement win over District 6-AA foe Howard. Brown had a game-high 29 points, while Tory Sewell scored 14 and Calvin Jackson chipped in 10 for the host Lions.
"Tory was telling me to throw it off the backboard, but I didn't want (the Tigers) to get it, so I went for the windmill," Brown said with his teammates gathered around him in the locker room.
Red Bank (15-9, 7-5) dominated the first half, using a suffocating defense to force 16 first-half turnovers for Howard (17-6, 8-4). The Lions jumped out to an 18-4 lead to start the game and led by eight at the end of the first quarter.
It was more of the same in the second period as the Lions opened on a 7-2 run highlighted by Brown's second dunk of the game, an alley-oop from point guard De'Angelo Ross, who Lions coach Nick Fike said made a huge difference in getting their offense going.
"Being able to put Ross at point really opens things up for us, because then we can put Brown and Sewell off the ball on the wing," Fike said. "Ross has really worked his tail off and made a huge difference for us tonight and going forward."
Brown's 3-pointer from well beyond the arc at the first-half buzzer gave the Lions what seemed like a comfortable 42-25 lead heading into the locker room.
That lead all but vanished in the third quarter. The Hustlin' Tigers got hot from deep with Demetrius Bowens hitting two 3s from well beyond NBA range. They scored 26 points in the period and closed it with an 18-5 run that left them trailing by just five points heading into the final frame.
Riding a wave of momentum, the Hustlin' Tigers hit three of their first four 3s to start the fourth quarter and grabbed their first lead of the game at 62-61 early in the period.
After lead exchanges over the next couple of minutes, Brown took over for the Lions. With the score knotted at 69, he scored nine of Red Bank's final 11 points and Howard's 3-point shooting went cold - the Tigers missed their final eight attempts - as the Lions held on for the victory.
Said Fike: "This was a big win for us, not as much for seeding in the district tournament but to get some momentum going into it."
"I couldn't be more proud of the way my guys have played lately, win or lose," said Howard coach James Talley, whose team's four district losses have come by a combined eight points. "These are life lessons we're going through right now, but believe me, our tent is not yet folded, and we're going to be ready to play come tournament time."
Contact Kevin Llewallyn at sports@timesfreepress.com.