WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. — With Sterling Taplin heading to the free throw line for Williamsville North, trailing 50-49 with 13 seconds left in the game, Jamestown head coach Ben Drake called over his star point guard.

"He said just get it and go to the rim," junior Tommy Campion said.

Junior Tommy Campion hit the game-winning bucket with less than 10 seconds to go to give Jamestown a 52-51 win over Williamsville North. (Photo by Chris Winkler)

Campion obliged. The point guard, who was having a tough night from the floor, drove the length of the court and fought through traffic to make a running one-handed leaner with five seconds left in the game. Taplin rushed the ball up court, but his deep three from around mid-court fell short.

"I wanted to wait and see what happened," Drake said about not calling timeout. "I felt better about having the ball in his hands and letting him do what he had to."

Jamestown led by 11 to start the quarter, but the Spartans chipped away behind their sensational sophomore Taplin. His three cut it to seven around the six-minute mark and a couple free throws cut it to six with 2:54 left.

But, it was Nicholas Konotopskyj who drilled a three to make it 50-47 with 35.1 seconds left. After Branden Kellam missed the front end of a one-and-one, Taplin hit a runner of his own to make it a one-point game. Then, Tommy Campion missed the front end of a one-and-one, leading to the game's dramatic ending.

"Give them credit," Drake said. "They made plays there late and knocked down shots. We stretched the lead to 10, but couldn't seem to get it past that. They came back strong."

It was back-and-forth throughout the first half as neither team was shooting particularly well. Neither team opened up a lead larger than three, which was Jamestown's lead at halftime after Kellam made a bucket with only a few seconds left in the second quarter.

"I felt good at halftime," Drake said. "We led by three and couldn't hit anything. I knew if we were going to start making some shots."

Jamestown head coach Ben Drake calls out a play during the third quarter. (Photo by Chris Winkler)

Indeed they did. Out of the break Jamestown got hot.

Adam Cecchini got things going with a wide-open three and Kareem Walker made a jumper to quickly push the lead to eight, prompting Spartans head coach Chuck Swierski to call a timeout.

A few minutes later, Cecchini scored on a driving layup before Jamestown got back on the run with a beautiful pass from Walker to Campion to push the lead into double-digits at 11. Again, Will North called timeout.

But Jamestown pushed on. Kellam, who had a real strong game up front, scored on a putback to make it a 13-point game near the end of the quarter.

But, possibly the player of the game was Walker and his defense, who held Taplin to 18 points. Jamestown played a lot of box-and-one and Walker battled through screens all night long.

"I thought Kareem did an excellent job on Taplin," Drake said. "He took pride in the assignment and rose to the occasion."

For Jamestown, they move to 14-1 and 11-0 in ECIC I, pushing them on the verge of clinching a league title for the third season in a row. With three league games remaining, they need just one win and one Frontier loss, who the Red Raiders will visit next Thursday. They're also in great position to grab the No. 1 seed in the AA sectional tournament later in the month.

Cecchini led all Jamestown Scorers with 14. Tonight, he was the only Red Raider that could seem to find his jumpshot. Kellam, the freshman was the only other player in double-figures with 10 points. Campion finished with nine, but none bigger than those last two.

"Sometimes you're going to have nights like that," Drake said. "We couldn't really get things going offensively, but we battled. It feels great. This puts us in great position to win the league and that's something we obviously want."