Two and a half seconds.
Enough time for one last chance.
As the Bruins broke down their final huddle and readied for one last play down 80-79, a question seemed to linger on the minds of Belmont fans.
Could Belmont actually complete the comeback?
Junior guard Emily La Chapell prepared to inbound.
She surveyed the swarm of bodies on the court before throwing a pass to sophomore guard Jailyn Banks.
Banks bobbled the reception and dribbled before collecting to push for another drive and shot at the rim.
She leapt through the air, put up the reverse layup and sank it.
“That last play we worked on a lot in practice…there's a lot of things that go into that play to open me up,” said Banks. “We did it like we did in practice, and it worked.”
The Bruins, in their first ever matchup against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, trailed for almost the entire game.
It looked as though the Lumberjacks were going to get their chance at advancing to the WBIT quarterfinals, leading by as much as 21 points in the second quarter and by 12 with two and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter.
But the Bruins never gave up.
“A lot of teams I've coached in my life…I don't know that we would’ve come back in a game like this,” said Head coach Bart Brooks.
The Bruins kept trapping the Lumberjacks players who received the inbounds passes and came up the court.
The Bruins kept poking at the ball and getting steals and defensive stops.
The Bruins kept getting baskets keeping their comeback hopes alive.
Freshman guard Sanaa Tripp got a couple of tough layups to go off steals.
La Chappell hit a layup off a back door cut and pass from graduate guard Tuti Jones.
Jones got her own miss and dribbled out to the perimeter for a 3-pointer.
Senior forward Carmyn Harrison got a steal and a fast break score to give Belmont the lead.
Finally, the Belmont crowd erupted and got to its feet.
But Northern Arizona University wasn’t done.
The Lumberjacks pushed on the inbounds and found junior forward Saniyah Everson for a score to take a last-second lead.
They led with 2.5 seconds left.
But 2.5 seconds would be all that was needed for Banks to clinch the game.
Banks not only had the game-winning shot but also led all Belmont scorers with 17 points and two of the team’s five steals to close out the night.
“We felt confident that if we just hung in, if we grinded it out, stacked the possessions together, we were going to have shot,” said Brooks.
As the clock hit zero, the buzzer sounded and the scoreboard read 81-80. It was official.
The team met center court, encircling each other and jumping up and down, celebrating after clawing their way to a victory in the second round of the WBIT.
The Bruins ended their final home game of the season on a high note and now will look to face the James Madison University Dukes in the quarterfinals of the WBIT at Atlantic Union Bank Center on Thursday.
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This article was written by Braden Simmons
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