Poly and Patterson had already met twice this season before squaring off again last night in the championship of the Gilman Tournament.
Last night's meeting -- a 74-73 win for Poly -- was the most exciting, coming down to the final seconds. The last second to be exact. One, long, agonizing second that Patterson won't forget for a while.
Poly was up 74-72 when Patterson's Ariel Gaines was fouled with one second left, sending him to the free-throw line with a chance to tie the game.
Gaines missed the first shot, and Poly called a timeout.
When play resumed, Gaines intentionally missed. Teammate Damon Hazelton got the rebound and was fouled by John McLean trying to put the shot back up with no time remaining.
Given a second chance to tie the game, the Clippers misfired again. Hazelton missed the first attempt and Poly had won the rubber match between the teams.
"We were very fortunate," said Poly coach Bucky Kimmett. "We had some foul problems which really hurt us because of our size, but we were fortunate to get the victory."
Junior forward John McLean scored a game-high 27 points for Poly (5-3), earning tournament Most Valuable Player honors. Brad Thomas added 20. Hazelton scored 25 to lead Patterson (4-6).
In their first matchup Poly defeated the Clippers, 69-61. Six days later, Patterson edged the Engineers, 79-75. Last night's game was even closer.
With 23 seconds left, the Engineers had a 74-70 lead, before two free throws by Andre Poole pulled Patterson to within 74-72 with 16 seconds to play.
Poly's Justin Robinson missed the front end of an one-and-one and Patterson called timeout with 15 seconds to play.
Poole tooked the inbound pass nearly the length of the court for Patterson but missed a layup.
Both teams scrambled for the ball and Gaines came up with it and drew the foul with one second left.
"This is a tough loss, but it was a great game," said Patterson coach Larry Alexander. "We made a couple of errors in the closing moments that sealed our fate, but we played real hard."
In the consolation game, Jason Mersey scored a game-high 22 points to lead host Gilman (5-6) past Lawrenceville of New
Jersey, 68-64.
Mark Abraham and Chris McLamb each added 13 for the Greyhounds. Kevin Small scored 12 and Corey Floyd added 11 for Lawrenceville (4-3).