Westchester County, NY — The Mount Vernon High School basketball team was going to hold on and win … until they didn’t.
Mount Vernon was ahead 60 to 58 over the New Rochelle Huguenots in the Section 1 Class AA championship game, and it looked like it was over until last-second heroics by Khalil Edney.
New Rochelle had gone on a 9-1 run in the final four minutes but the team appeared to be falling just short as the final seconds drained from the clock. On the last play of the game, Mount Vernon’s Devante Banner stole Edney’s inbound pass near mid-court. But Banner did not make a banner play by just tossing the ball in the air in an attempt to run out the clock.
Edney — who is also the New Rochelle quarterback on the state-championship football team — intercepted the ball in the air and heaved it towards the New Rochelle basket from 55 feet out. Swish. Pandemonium in the gym. The refs huddled up and then counted the basket, and a replay showed the ball indeed left Edney’s heads with 0.1 second on the clock, making the play a bona fide buzzer beater .
New Rochelle, which was the ninth seed in the tournament, won 61-60, thus forcing the play-by-play announcer to withdraw his statement that Mount Vernon was going to hold on and win.
Khalil Edney, a 6’2″ senior guard, explained to the New York Post what happened in the furious final seconds:
“Most high school kids, when they win a big game like that, they throw the ball in the air. He didn’t throw the ball high enough. I grabbed the ball and I threw it.
“That was the greatest feeling in the world when they said it counted. Just because it was against Mount Vernon. They’ve been winning section titles for the past seven years. To beat them, that was everything.”
The last time New Rochelle won a title was in 2005 when they had Ray Rice, now of the Baltimore Ravens, playing guard.
New Rochelle will square off against Binghamton in the New York State regional finals tomorrow.
Watch Khalil Edney’s incredible buzzer beater against Mount Vernon:
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