Newton High School’s Javarious Moore drives into the lane against Northeast Lauderdale High School defenders Wednesday night at East Central Community College in Decatur.

When Harvest Brunson launched the basketball from half-court and it swirled down the net, Brunson and the Northeast Lauderdale High School contingent of fans who traveled to East Central Community College let out a collective cheer, as the seemingly game-winning basket broke the tie against Newton and looked to give the Trojans their first win of the year.

But those hopes were dashed when one of the game’s referees waved off the shot after explaining that one of Brunson’s teammates called a timeout with less than a second left in the game.

“I just threw it up — I lined it up perfectly, and it went in,” Brunson explained. “But my teammate called timeout, though, and it didn’t count. I was upset.”

Brunson would get another shot at winning the game, and again, he delivered. This time, however, no timeout followed his shot. With less than one second remaining in overtime, Brunson set up from behind the 3-point line, cocked back and fired his shot at the rim. The basket lifted Northeast Lauderdale over Newton 47-44 in overtime and put the Trojans in the win column for the first time this season.

“I knew they would double-team (Akiva Burton) because he’d been hot all game — he’s been hot all season,” Brunson said. “I just told him to look for me, because I knew they would double up on him, and leave me open. He found me, and I hit the shot.”

After ending the first quarter tied at 8, Newton took a 17-15 lead into halftime courtesy of a trio of 3-pointers by Deshun Watts, who hit two, and Javarious Moore, who connected on one. Tyler Bedford also added two field goals in the second quarter, which the Tigers would ride into the lead.

“We’re very young, so we’re just now beginning to compete,” Newton head coach Darrin Gray said. “They’re giving it everything they’ve got, so I can’t ask for more. They’re very young, so they’re going to make mistakes, but the effort is there. We don’t have any seniors out there, so, most of the kids I’m playing are sophomores. For their effort, I’m happy.”

Northeast Lauderdale screamed back in the third quarter on the shooting of Rafael Walker, who contributed eight of the Trojans’ 14 third-quarter points. Walker hit two field goals and connected on all four of his free-throw attempts. Jalon Shepard’s 9 points in the period gave the Tigers a two-point lead at the end of three.

“The more games we have like this, the more experience it will give us in our district,” Gray said. 

Walker wasn’t done doing the heavy lifting in the fourth quarter. He drained another four free throws in the final period of regulation, which, along with a field goal and a free throw by Keahva Moss, and field goals by Ulysses Lebron and Brunson, was enough to tie the score and send the game into overtime.

Newton’s Jamonie Brown hit a field goal with 2:40 left in overtime to push the Tigers ahead, and Moore followed with two free throws 10 seconds later. 

Shepard gave Newton a 2-point lead after hitting a jumper with 1:19 remaining in the overtime, which Walker countered with two free throws with 1:03 left in overtime to tie the score at 44.

Brunson’s buzzer-beater sailed through the net just over a minute later, clinching the win.

“This is the spark we needed that we’ll try to build on to get better,” Trojans head coach Lewis Lightsey said. “We needed that confidence. Even if you play tough teams, you still have to get a win somewhere. That’s something that we needed. I’m proud that our kids didn’t give up and quit. There were several times that we were down. Rafael made a lot of free throws for us coming down the stretch.”