Short-handed Douglass guts out win over Madison Central with buzzer-beater
Armelo Boone’s putback basket at the buzzer lifted short-handed No. 23 Frederick Douglass to a 61-59 win over Madison Central on Friday night and extended the Broncos’ win streak to 13 games.
“You just have to be ready for anything. We just have to be basketball players and react” said senior Tylon Webb, whose drive to the bucket with the clock winding down resulted in a running shot that caromed hard off the backboard.
Fortunately, Boone followed his teammate to the hoop.
“I thought he’d make the layup but it was like, far, so I just grabbed it and finished it for the game,” said Boone, who pointed to the rafters as the horn sounded and teammates and fans swarmed him on the court.
Playing without Kai Simpson, their starting senior point guard and leading scorer who was at home due to illness, the Broncos (16-2) rallied from as many as 11 down in the first half and overcame a bizarre miscue in the game’s final seconds.
Madison Central’s Jaylen Davis cut the Indians’ deficit to 59-57 on a pair of free throws with 13.3 seconds left. Douglass attempted to go over the top of Madison Central’s defense to the far side of the court on their ensuing inbounds pass, but the ball struck the court-dividing tarp rolled up in the rafters for a dead-ball turnover. Davis made a game-tying jumper in the lane seconds later.
With no Douglass timeouts left, Webb took the final inbounds and sprinted up the court to set up the game-winning sequence.
“In the moment, you know, I had to make a play,” Webb said. “I was just in the moment.”
Boone led four Broncos in double figures with 19 points. Webb scored 15, Aveion Chenault 13, and Logan Busson 10, which was six points above his average. Busson’s buzzer-beater at halftime tied the game at 23-23 after Douglass trailed 17-6 at the end of the first quarter.
“It’s a big step. It just goes to show that anyone can step up at any moment,” Webb said. “Everybody just has to be ready for their moment when they get their name called.”
The Broncos’ offense looked disjointed early and they struggled to guard Madison Central’s Davis and Jayden West, who finished the game with 24 and 23 points, respectively.
Douglass settled down in the second quarter, erased its deficit and led by as many as seven points midway through the fourth quarter before Madison Central (10-9) responded to tie the game and trade the lead down the stretch until a Chenault bucket in the paint put the Broncos up 59-55 with under a minute to play.
“We just played defense and our chemistry went up,” Boone said. “We got a bunch of steals and layups and after that started making shots.”
After a scheduled game against Paul Laurence Dunbar on Saturday, Douglass faces four straight games within the 42nd District next week, beginning with Henry Clay on Tuesday. No. 5 George Rogers Clark comes to The Farm on Feb. 7. No. 3 Ballard visits Feb. 15 as Douglass ramps up its schedule’s difficulty heading into the postseason.
