WILMINGTON — Princeton beat the buzzer and the Wilmington High School boys basketball Tuesday night 45-44 in a thrilling non-conference matchup at Fred Summers Court.
After the loss, Wilmington’s record moves to 4-2 on the year.
“They (Princeton) have a lot of athletic guys and they have a lot of size with their athleticism,” said WHS head coach Mike Noszka, “I thought our kids really fought hard and did enough to win. We had a missed defensive assignment down there at the end but we really did our job there on the final play.”
With less than 10 seconds to go in the game, Dylan Beaugard put the Hurricane up by 1 point, 44-43. With a little over 5 seconds left to play, Princeton came up with an inbounds play from the sideline and Dominic Pierce scored on a layup at the buzzer to take the win.
Chris Wolary led the Hurricane with 18 points. Jeffery Mansfield and Dylan Beaugard both had 12 points.
Pierce led all players with 20 points. Darweshi Hunter had 9 points.
Wilmington moved out to a 10-4 lead in the early going but Princeton was quick to recover during the second quarter and by the end of the first half, Wilmington’s lead was just one point, 20-19.
The two teams battled it out in a closely-played third quarter, with the Vikings evening the score at 25-25. The lead changes were numerous throughout the rest of the quarter and Princeton managed to take a 32-31 lead going into the exciting final period.
“It isn’t so much the points,” said Noszka. “It’s just the little things. It’s the rebounds, it’s the toughness and just as an entire program we need more from more kids but I am very very proud, especially of the kids that played there in the varsity game. I thought they laid it all out there for our school and our town.”
The Hurricane will get back at it Thursday, hosting Chillicothe Unioto. Then on Dec. 28 Mason comes to Fred Summers Court for another non-league game.
SUMMARY
December 20, 2016
@Fred Summers Court
Princeton 45 Wilmington 44
W 10.10.11.13…..44
P 04.15.13.13…..45
(44) WILMINGTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Gauche 0-0-0-0 Smith 1-0-0-2 Beaugard 4-1-3-12 Mansfield 4-2-2-12 Wolary 8-2-0-18 Evans 0-0-0-0 Wright 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 17-5-5-44
(45) PRINCETON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Crawford 2-0-0-4 Davis 0-0-0-0 Hill 2-0-0-4 Pierce 8-1-3-20 Henry 0-0-0-0 O’Neil 3-0-0-6 Hunter 3-1-2-9 Levy 1-0-0-2. TOTALS 19-2-5-45
