There’s probably no other basketball team in America that’s been on the wrong end of more shocking buzzer-beating losses than Mount Vernon High School.
Surely the Mount Vernon faithful figured that the team’s 2009 loss to Newburgh in the quarterfinals of the New York State Class AA Federation tournament would go down as the most shocking in recent history. After all, they lost on a desperation 55-foot, one-handed heave from then-junior guard Will Bouton at the buzzer in overtime.
Unfortunately for the N.Y. basketball powerhouse, yesterday’s loss to New Rochelle high school may be even more excruciating. They were defeated once again by a 55-footer — this time in the New York State Section 1 Class AA championship.
Not only did Mount Vernon blow a 10-point lead with four minutes left in the game, but they were leading by two points when they stole the ball from New Rochelle on the final in-bounds play of the game.
Unfortunately, the Mount Vernon player who stole the last-ditch inbound pass proceeded to callously throw the ball in the air. He probably thought that was a smart decision–figuring that the clock would run out while the ball was still airborne. He didn’t toss the ball anywhere near as high as he needed to for that strategy to have succeeded, and the New Rochelle in-bounder, Khalil Edney, intercepted the errand toss, and chucked a miracle heave to secure a 61-60 victory over Mount Vernon.
Both buzzer-beaters are incredibly devastating for Mount Vernon. The 2009 loss was the playoff quarter-final for the entire state, while yesterday’s game was the championship for that section. Check out video of the two 55-footers and tell us which one you find more demoralizing:
2009
Yesterday (again)