Archbishop Williams beats buzzer, St. Mary’s in CCL thriller

With a crucial Catholic Central League battle hanging in the balance, Josh Campbell delivered in the spotlight.

With Archbishop Williams trailing St. Mary’s by a point and less than eight seconds remaining, Campbell

received the ball in the low post and missed a layup. Andre Espaillat, however, corralled the offensive rebound and dumped it back to Campbell, who finished this time as time ticked down to give the Bishops a thrilling 78-77 win over the Spartans on Friday night.

Tristan Rodriguez led all scorers with 29 points while his teammate Campbell added 23 more. David Brown, who scored his 1,000th career point in the second quarter, finished with 27 points.

“Josh really stepped up,” Archbishop Williams coach Brian Holden said. “St. Mary’s did a great job. They have great athletes and he had to fight through it. He wanted the ball.”

After Archbishop Williams (14-0) held a one point lead at the half, the Spartans went on a 13-2 run, highlighted by a Nick Sacco layup in transition, to go in front 54-44 midway through the third period. Two Rodriguez triples brought the Bishops closer but the Spartans remained in front by seven, 65-58, as the game turned to the final stanza.

Archies opened the fourth quarter on a 10-3 run capped off by a layup from Campbell to tie the game 68-68 with five minutes left, but a Sacoo basket gave St. Mary’s a 77-73 edge with 90 seconds remaining.

Campbell, however, finished at the basket around a free throw to bring the deficit to one point and set up his own late game heroics.

“Just great resilience from our guys,” Holden said. “Tough environment and for them to close says a lot about them. We got every loose ball and rebound down the stretch.”