Nobody at Northeast Lauderdale’s gym Thursday night could argue the referees “let them play.”

Among the countless objections of boisterous coaches and raucous spectators, the whistles of the game’s three officials rained down for 32 minutes.

As the fourth quarter of a tightly-contest matchup ensued between the Trojans and Kemper County, any notions of a slow-paced, methodical approach went out the nearest window of that noisy gym. Players on both sides tried, and often failed, to outrun and outflank full-court press and aggressive defenses in order to drive at the basket and draw foul after foul.

When it was all over, 37 fouls were called, 15 in the final quarter alone, that resulted in 69 free-throw attempts among both squads. Two of those free throws came before tip-off, as the Wildcats were given a technical foul for an illegal yellow line running down their uniforms. The infraction gave the Trojans a 2-0 lead before the game’s opening seconds.  

Northeast quickly lost its lead, and didn’t get it back until Dupri Blackshear grabbed a rebound and handed off the ball to Christian Luvene in transition, who then spun to his left and hucked a one-handed pass to a wide open Keilon Robinson for the uncontested layup to put the Trojans ahead 79-78 with 25 seconds left in the contest. 

On the in-bounds play for Kemper County, Blackshear leaped into the air to intercept the pass and draw a foul. He missed both shots on the line, and a last layup attempt for the Wildcats missed at the rim to hand the Trojans the victory in a contentious game where five technical fouls were handed down. 

“I’m thinking, ‘I’m glad we worked on game situations,’” Northeast head coach Lewis Lightsey said of the final 30 seconds. “We put a lot of effort into game situations, so that way our players will know what to do.”

From the opening technical foul, and the final result, Kemper County head coach Micheal Johnson said the game was his.

“We won,” Johnson said. “We started down 2-0, and we lost 79-78. We won this game tonight.”

On the possession prior to Robinson’s go-ahead basket, Luvene went up for a shot that missed, but he got his own rebound and put back in a shot that cut the Trojans’ deficit to 78-77. 

The Wildcats scored freely in the opening quarter, scoring 26 points to Northeast’s 19. The Trojans claws their way back, though, eventually tying the game at 37-37 at halftime. They went down by double digits in the third quarter, but came back from that deficit as well.

Dennis Heidelberg has a game-high 23 points for Northeast (2-2), and Luvene added 21 points and five rebounds. The Trojans went 38 of 43 at the free-throw line. Kemper County (0-2) was led by James Granger, who poured in 26 points, and Quivon McClendon added 16. The Wildcats went 16-for-26 at the charity stripe.

NEL GIRLS 56, KEMPER COUNTY 37

Northeast used a 9-0 run in the opening quarter to quickly distance itself from Kemper County, and went on to win comfortably 56-37.

“We’re off to a pretty good start to the season. I’m happy with my players,” Northeast head coach Lewis Lightsey said. “Each played pretty good tonight, so we’ll take it.”

Kennedi Jimison had a game-high 20 points for the Lady Trojans (4-1) along with five steals, and Eboni Alford added 14 points and seven rebounds.

Jasmine Harris led the Lady Wildcats (0-2) with a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Jadquashia Clark added eight points and six boards.