TAMAQUA - Blue Mountain's Will Bornstein got the ball on the wing with time winding down Thursday and took a quick glance at the clock.
It read 6 seconds and was running down fast.
"I knew we only needed one shot," Bornstein said. "There wasn't much time left."
The senior guard not only took it, but made it, scoring on a drive with 3 seconds remaining, lifting the Eagles to a thrilling, hard-fought 46-44 victory over Tamaqua in a Schuylkill League Division I contest.
Down the entire game, the Raiders tied the game at 44 when Bo Rottet hit 1-of-2 from the foul line with 1:00 remaining.
On Blue Mountain next possession, Mark Chelius drove inside with 44 seconds left and tried to shoot past Tamaqua's Brett Kosciolek. The 6-foot-7 forward stuffed the shot but Chelius was able to track the loose ball down and Eagles coach Dustin Werdt called a timeout with 38.7 seconds left.
Blue Mountain ran down the clock before Bornstein got the ball. He charged in hard from the left wing and put up a floater over Kosciolek that went through the hoop.
"We ran an offensive set that has a couple of different options," Werdt said. "One being the guard driving and some interior looks at well. Will make the play."
Bornstein and the rest of the Eagles celebrated at mid-court as the buzzer went off but Tamaqua coach Caszy Kosciolek got a timeout called with 2.3 seconds to go. But all the Raiders could get was a desperation, half-court try from Rottet that missed.
With the win, Blue Mountain (5-0, 2-0 D-I) remained undefeated on the season, while Tamaqua (4-1, 0-1) suffered its first loss.
"It's big," Bornstein said of the win. "This is a game we were looking forward to, one of the biggest games of the year. We wanted to come up here and get a win."
Skyler Panchari led Blue Mountain with 13 points and six rebounds, while Shane Grapsy added 12 points and four rebounds and Bornstein nine points and three steals.
Brett Kosciolek finished with a double-double, scoring a game-high 18 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, to go along with three blocks. Rottet added 13 points.
The Raiders finished 16-for-42 (38 percent) from the floor, including a 7-for-23 showing in the first half, and committed 18 turnovers.
"We didn't particularly shoot the ball well, especially early, but the guts and fight of our team," Caszy Kosciolek said. "I had questions. We haven't played in a while and this team is the quickest, fastest team we've faced so far. We responded.
"On the flip side, we had a lot of unforced errors and turnovers in transition."
It appeared the game was never going to come down to a late-second shot after the Eagles built a 14-point lead late in the first half and led by nine at 44-32 with 5:28 left in the game after Panchari worked his way inside for a layup.
But that was the Eagles' last field goal, a nearly 5:25 drought, before Bornstein's game-winner.
Meanwhile, the Raiders slowly went on a 9-0 run as Blue Mountain started to turn the ball over. Kosciolek knocked down a pull-up jumper, Rottet hit a 3 from the corner, Joe Marcin hit 1-of-2 from the foul line, Kosciolek scored on a lob inside and Rottet tied the score with his free throw with 1 minute left.
Werdt felt fortunate to get the win after the Eagles went 6-for-20 from the floor in the second half and turned the ball over 15 times in the game.
"I think whenever you come to this gym, and I said this to the kids, even when they were down five or six years ago, this is a tough place to play," Werdt said. "If you come out with a win you have to feel good about it. With the team they have now, you really feel good about it. There are some things we have to clean up but there was some adversity and it was nice to see how they responded to it."