It didn’t seem like the game would ever end.

Kingston’s Demario Smith hit a 3-pointer to pull the Tigers to within 2 points with what appeared to be 2.5 seconds left to go. At the end of a timeout, 4.1 seconds were put on the clock.

Then Jaydan Lorenzo missed two free throws, the Tigers got the rebound but couldn’t get a shot off and the Newburgh Free Academy boys’ basketball team escaped their home gym on Thursday night with a 65-63 win.

“I felt like this game was never going to end,” Newburgh coach Jason McAllister said. “Kingston and Newburgh is always a good game. You can throw the records out with Kingston and Newburgh since the beginning of time. They’re good. They’re a well-coached team. They have good players and they’re never down and out.”

The win provided a much-needed elixir for the Goldbacks, who struggled to shoot the ball in a 58-37 loss to the Valley Central Vikings two days earlier.

“We had to prove something,” Newburgh forward Deondre Johnson said. “What happened the other night wasn’t our basketball game. We had to prove that we could honestly play with each other and play through adversity.”

After losing to the Vikings, the Goldbacks had a team meeting before practice on Wednesday with two weeks left in the regular season, a meeting McAllister said set the tone for Thursday.

“We had two options (after losing to Valley Central),” McAllister said. “We could have just caved in and not handled adversity well. Or we could take it on the chin and man up. We took the second option. We figured it out, and just tried to put our best foot forward.”

The Goldbacks struggled to shoot the ball again but made up for it by feeding the big man.

Johnson, the Goldbacks’ 6-foot-8 forward took control of both ends of the court with a game-high 32 points, which included seven dunks, 14 rebounds, and at least two emphatic blocks.

“They look for me every time,” Johnson said. “They expect me to cut with them every time they cut.”
Lorenzo also scored 10 points.

They needed every one of the points after the Tigers put up big third and fourth quarters to turn what was originally a 14-point lead at halftime to a two-point victory.

Kingston’s Ke’Montae Thawe led the Tigers (9-5, 1-3 OCIAA-1) with 31 points, and Elijah Abrams added 20 points.

(Thawe) is one of the best guards in the state of New York,” McAllister said. “We just tried to slow him down the best way we can. He looked like he never missed a shot, but we had to cherish the ball and get started when we could and capitalize on mistakes the best way we could and snuck out of here with a win.”

Newburgh (6-5, 4-1 OCIAA-1) has one divisional game remaining, a regular-season finale matchup with the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders. Their win over the Middletown Middies on January 21 secured their postseason berth, but they still have another meeting with Division 2 leader Warwick and Washingtonville, who they lost to in December, to see where they will land in sectionals.

“We’re not in the best spot where we want to be,” Johnsons aid. “But there’s still a lot of things we can work on and there is still more time to come together.”