Late basket lifts Heritage to win against Liberty

With his team trailing rival Liberty-Brentwood by two points and just 80 seconds remaining, Heritage-Brentwood boys basketball coach Pat Cruickshank sent the Patriots out of a timeout to play defense, asking them for one stop.

Then he turned and said to a nearby spectator: “Boy, I’m glad I took my blood pressure medicine tonight.”

He’s almost certainly glad he has players like Tyriq Mack and Jonathan Ned, too.

Mack, a 6-foot senior, made a supremely athletic block-rebound-layup play and Ned sank the gamewinner with 16.5 seconds left for to give host Heritage a 71-70 Bay Valley Athletic League win.

No. 15 Heritage (16-2, 2-0) trailed No. 19 Liberty by as much as eight in the fourth quarter. The Patriots were down 69-63 with 2:45 left before finishing the game on an 8-1 run.

“That had a lot to do with us as a team,” Cruickshank said. “Prior to that, we were trying to do a lot of things individually. We got to that last three minutes, we executed some and we scored and realized if we played together a little bit, we’d be OK.”

After Mack blocked a three-point attempt beyond the top of the key, got the ball and swooped in for a deuce to tie things at 69, Liberty (13-4, 1-1) took a 70-69 lead on a Fabian Estrada free throw with 45.9 to play. After using their last two timeouts on the ensuing possession, the Patriots drew up a play to get the ball to the 6-6 Ned.

He got the ball at the elbow and backed in for a smooth 10-foot turnaround.

“Coach drew up a play for me and I just had to come through and execute,” the junior said.

“My team is a little young,” Liberty coach Jon Heinz said. “They just have to be smart down the stretch and finish the game off.”

Ned scored 24 points and teammate Anthony Dennis added 23 and six rebounds. Liberty was led by Ben Smith (19 points, 10 rebounds).