Buckingham County coach Russ Gowin was right.
“If you were a fan here tonight, you got your money’s worth,” Gowin said. “And you ought to put another dollar in on the way out.”
Gowin’s team’s battle with Dan River, came down to who had the ball last, and unfortunately for Buckingham, Dan River’s Fabian Robertson got his hands on it near the 3-point line with 2.4 seconds to play and the game deadlocked. Robertson took two dribbles toward the basket and the middle of the floor and let loose a running one-handed shot that careened in off the back of the rim to give Dan River a 69-67 win and a Group A, Division 2 tournament berth at Amherst High.
“That’s not exactly how we drew it up — a one-footed, one-handed runner that rattled around the rim,” said Dan River coach Jacob Gruse. “But that’s the guy we wanted with the ball.”
The play Gruse drew up gave Robertson, a junior who averaged under 10 points per game this year but exploded for 27 against Buckingham, a look at his two super-athletic teammates, Paul Stone and Trey Edmunds, cutting in toward the basket. Stone is an East Carolina basketball signee averaging 19.8 per contest while Edmunds is a four-star football recruit with offers from North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech. But Gowin and the Knights clamped down on Stone, Edmunds, and, actually, Robertson.
“We had (Robertson) covered well and we had Stone and Edmunds, the best two players covered, and (Robertson) just made a fantastic shot,” Gowin said. “Off balance with two guys on him, you can’t ask for any better than that.”
The entire game was played at a breakneck pace, which wasn’t a surprise when two teams that embrace a wideopen attack lock up. Buckingham was able to hang with the high-octane Wildcats with Antonn Briley and Tarian Ayers attacking the basket in the first half and Caleb White getting in on the act in the second half.
Briley seemed to match each big Dan River bucket with a basket of his own or a trip to the free throw line, and he finished with 18 points, knocking down six of eight free throw attempts. Ayers put up 10 points, six of them in the first half.
“We really needed that speed tonight,” Gowin said of Briley’s efforts.
Briley often seemed to be at the other end challenging for a bucket before Dan River could even react after a made basket on the other end.
Almost the entire game, both teams traded basket for basket until Dan River started pulling away late in the third quarter. That’s when White got into a groove after being tethered to the bench almost the entire first half with three first quarter fouls.
“He tugged at my pants one time trying to get back in there, but I told our guys we’ve got to step up and hold things together in that first half,” Gowin said. “Our guys did a great job of holding and actually gaining ground after he was out.”
White made up for some lost time by attacking the basket ad softening up the Dan River defense after the Wildcats built that 10-point lead. His work opened the door for a Landon Allen three and shortly after Allen’s bucket, White scored to make it 61-56 early in the fourth.
With 23 seconds to play, Briley connected on a drive to cut Dan River’s lead to one. Buckingham quickly fouled and put Edmunds on the line. He hit one of two free throws. White got the ball on the ensuing possession and drew a foul out near the elbow with 5.1 seconds to play. He hit both free throws to tie it up. Dan River quickly pushed the ball out and got a timeout after crossing the timeline to set up Robertson’s heroics.
Buckingham’s season ended with the buzzer beater, but seven of the Knights’ top eight return next year, with senior post standout Kevin Bolden the lone member of the regular rotation moving on.
