BRAMPTON, Ont. - With less than five seconds to play it looked as though the Sheridan Bruins men's basketball team (9-7, 3-1 OCAA) were out of time and would come up short against Niagara.
An empty trip to the free-throw line from the visitors, followed by a banked three-ball from 25-feet and they emerged with an unlikely but thrilling 71-70 triumph.
"It was certainly a roller coaster," assistant coach Leroy Cassanova said. "We kept falling behind and then coming back and then we managed to make a final push, made some plays at the end, got a little lucky and got the win."
In the opening frame the Double-Blue fell behind by as many as eight, but closed on a 7-0 run to trim their deficit to one, 16-15.
They took their first lead of the night - albeit briefly - in the second quarter but ended up in the same position after 20 minutes as they were after 10, trailing by one, this time 32-31.
Niagara opened the second half on a 7-0 run and would push their advantage as high as nine in the quarter, but Sheridan chipped away to make it a five-point game, 50-45, entering the final 10 minutes.
Early in the fourth quarter Niagara seemed to be poised to pull away when they drilled three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to open their largest lead (nine) of the night, but a 9-0 brought the homeside level.
With less than a minute to go Niagara held a 70-65 advantage, but a three ball from Kadeem Hall pulled the Double-Blue within two.
Unable to force a turnover, they fouled to put Matt Poirier at the free line for two attempts with 4.5 seconds remaining.
He missed both attempts, the Bruins corralled the rebound and Andrew Stephenson weaved his way up the floor and heaved the ball at the hoop, banking it off the window to complete the unlikely comeback.
While Niagara held a two possession lead at some point in every quarter, Sheridan only held the lead on five occasions with none larger than two points.
Jahmal McQueen had a game-high 21 points - 11 of which came in the final quarter - while Andrew Stephenson (14), Kadeem Hall (13) and Roshean Keen (10) all posted double-digit scoring totals.
The club will have a full week to prepare for a pair of games in a 20 hour stretch when they host Sault (November 17, 8 p.m.) and Algoma (November 18, 4 p.m.).
Cassanova says that attention to some of the details will go a long way towards improving the their outlook moving forwad.
"We need to cut down on our turnovers, we need to run crisper offence and we need to do some things fundamentally better," he said. "We'll try to continue improving on the little things and hopefully be ready to peak at the end of the year."
Source: Sheridan I.T.