EMMITSBURG - Sam Prescott waited his entire basketball life to hit a shot as big as the 3-pointer that sent Thursday night's Mount St. Mary's-Fairleigh Dickinson game to overtime.
It took him less than 48 hours to hit an even bigger one.
Prescott swished a 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds remaining to lift the Mount over LIU Brooklyn 95-92 in front of an amped-up homecoming crowd Saturday at Knott Arena.
"This one's sweeter," Prescott said afterward. "Just a little bit, though."
The Mount (9-12 overall) improved to 5-3 in Northeast Conference play and is in a two-way tie for third as the conference season reached its midpoint. Meanwhile, three-time defending league champion LIU (7-14, 2-6) dropped into a tie for eighth.
The Mountaineers and Blackbirds put on an offensive display, with MSM's Rashad Whack scoring 26 points and Julian Norfleet 24, combining to go 10 of 15 on 3-pointers. But, just like Thursday, it was Prescott taking the most important shot of the game.
"They're carrying the team right now and I'm just doing the things that my team needs," Prescott said. "You need me to lock up a guy? I'll do that. You need me to rebound? I'll do that. Hit a shot at the end of a game? Whatever my team needs."
Whatever indeed.
Also just like on Thursday, when Prescott hadn't made a shot all night before his tying 3-pointer with 5.4 seconds left in regulation of an eventual overtime win, the senior guard wasn't having his best game on Saturday. He had missed his only two 3-point shots and had scored only four points before his game-winner, although he did sink a pair of critical free throws with 14.6 seconds left to run his streak of consecutive made foul shots to 28.
But after LIU's EJ Reed (24 points) banked in a 3-pointer with 8.6 seconds left to tie it at 92-92, Norfleet received the inbounds pass and pushed the ball up the court until he neared the 3-point arc. Two LIU players converged upon him, so he spun to his left and found Prescott wide open on the left wing.
The dead-on game-winning shot barely moved the net.
Norfleet was asked if he was surprised to see Prescott left so open given what happened on Thursday night.
"I kind of was," he said.
Mount St. Mary's coach Jamion Christian said he was glad to see Prescott get the ball again at a critical juncture and that the pass from Norfleet epitomizes what his team is trying to do.
"I knew if it got in one of these guys' hands they were going to have the ability to make it," Christian said afterward, flanked by Whack, Norfleet and Prescott. "That's Mount basketball. ... A lot of guys sharing the ball and really playing unselfishly. That last play is very indicative of that."
The game wasn't actually over after that "last" play, however, as 0.3 seconds remained on the clock. The Blackbirds inbounded to Iverson Fleming (18 points) at halfcourt.
Fleming turned and heaved the ball toward the basket and it swished through.
A stunned crowd and an excited bunch of Blackbirds believed the shot had tied it up. But according to a rule enacted by the NCAA prior to the 1994-94 season, the only shot that can count with 0.3 seconds or less remaining is a tip-in. The shot was waved off, reviewed, and waved off again.
"That's commonly known. At point-3 you can only tip," Christian said. "Not at all [worried]."
Added Whack: "I already knew there were point-3 [left] so it couldn't go in, but it was just like, 'Oh, he really hit that.'"
Christian said he watched one of the "Rocky" movies before the game and it proved an apt analogy. The Mount kept hitting LIU with its best shots, but the Blackbirds kept coming back.
"That's the heart of a champion," Christian said of the team that beat the Mount in last season's NEC title game. "This is like Rocky when he fought the Russian. The Russian in that movie was unbeatable and LIU's been so unbeatable for so long ... and we were able to keep throwing haymakers."
Led by the red-hot Whack and Norfleet, the Mountaineers hit on six of their first nine 3-point attempts to take an 18-12 lead barely more than four minutes in. The Mount had nine 3-pointers - four each by Whack and Norfleet - and a 33-24 lead midway through the first half. But LIU stayed within striking distance by hitting the offensive glass. The Blackbirds outrebounded the Mountaineers 23-9 in the first half and trailed only 45-40 at the break.The Mount extended its advantage to eight points three times in the second half, but LIU rallied to it at 77-77 with four minutes left. Taylor Danaher (nine points) and Gregory Graves (11 points, 12 rebounds) came up with some big buckets inside and Whack scored on a key baseline drive, but LIU tallied a total of 16 points on its final six possessions to tie the game and set up Prescott's deja-vu inducing buzzer-beater.
"I would say this is the first one, hopefully one of many in my long career," he said of his game-winning shot. "I'll just enjoy this one and take it into next week."
Reach staff writer Bob Blubaugh at 410-857-7895 or bob.blubaugh@carrollcountytimes.com.
