James Bartnik, Howard's leading scorer on the season, sat on the bench hoping for another shot.
Midway through the third quarter Friday, with the Lions trailing host Oakland Mills by 20 points, Howard coach Matt Jens had benched his senior forward. Bartnik, who watched as his teammates slowly began chipping away at the deficit, had been regulated to serving as a cheerleader.
"I was sitting there thinking that I wanted to be in there … it was a big game and I wanted to help the team," said Bartnik, who came in averaging 13.6 points a game. "I kept telling myself as soon as got back in there I was going to be aggressive and do whatever I could."
With the Oakland Mills lead having been trimmed to five and less than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, as Howard's Kendall Hawkins (6 points) fouled out, Bartnik finally got his opportunity.
He made sure he didn't waste it.
Stepping in and scoring the Lions' final nine points in a span of one minute and 26 seconds, Bartnik sealed the deal on a remarkable, 57-56, comeback victory.
"To be honest, I probably wasn't going to put him back in the game. I didn't think he came out with the intensity in the second half that he should have and if (Kendall) doesn't foul out (James) probably wouldn't have even been in there (at the end)," Jens said. "But I couldn't be more proud of him."
"He went back in and went back in big. He showed me something."
Bartnik (13 points) sealed the deal on the victory by hitting a pair of foul shots with 2.7 seconds remaining, taking the Lions from down one to up one.
"I was just blocking everything out and thinking back to practice, doing what I know how to do and knocking them down," Bartnik said.
Oakland Mills had one final shot, but the 3-point attempt by Antonio Manns (22 points) glanced off the rim.
It was a rather shocking turn of events for a Scorpions team that appeared, at one point early in the second half, like it was going to coast to its fifth straight victory.
After leading 17-13 after one quarter, Oakland Mills increased its advantage to double digits, 33-20, by halftime. Manns and Nekhi Bradley (11 points) were at the forefront during those opening 16 minutes.
Things got even better for the Scorpions to start the third quarter, with Manns and Bradley combining for nine points to up the lead to 42-22.
That's when Jens subbed in a whole new group, trying to change things up. And, just like that, the Lions began clawing their way back into it.
A group that included Jordan Hawkins (12 points), Stephan Marsh (10), Duke Bartnik (6), Kendall Hawkins (6) and Mike Alexander (4) combined to help Howard close the quarter on a 14-2 run.
That same unit, which included three guys that average less than four points a game, kept things going in the fourth to get the lead down to five points with just less than two minutes remaining in regulation.
It was at that point that James Bartnik came in and took over. He made an old fashioned three-point play, a jumper and went 4-4 from the foul line down the stretch.
His final two from the line were the ones that officially sealed the deal on a victory that snapped a four-game Howard losing skid.
"Confidence wise this is absolutely huge for us because a team has to get some momentum and you don't get momentum by losing," Jens said. "Hopefully we can carry this with us into next week."
Howard 57, Oakland Mills 56
Ho (3-5, 3-7): J. Bartnik 13, J. Hawkins 12, Marsh 10, D. Bartnik 6, K. Hawkins 6, Alexander 4, Wendt 4, Dyer 2.
OM (3-5, 5-6): Manns 22, Bradley 11, Lee 7, Tapscott 7, Madden-Stricker 4, Dent 3, Huewe 2.
Half: 33-20 OM.