Lisbon’s Ashton Hinchliffe gets a rebound against Wellsville on Friday. (Photo by Ron Firth)

LISBON — Lisbon and Wellsville treated fans to one of the best high school boys basketball games you’ll find when the Blue Devils and Tigers collided in an Eastern Ohio Conference thriller at George M. Nace Jr. Gymnasium Friday night — an improbable win captured by the Blue Devils in the final seconds, 63-62.

“That was a great basketball game,” said a relieved Lisbon head coach Chris Huckshold. “I wish every game was that way and more fans would come and more kids would play basketball. It was a great, great experience for high school basketball.”

Things looked bleak for Lisbon, which trailed 62-61 and committed an intentional foul against the Tigers with 9.6 seconds left. The foul not only provided the Tigers with two free throw attempts but possession of the basketball following those charity tosses.

But incredibly, Wellsville missed both free throws and then tossed the basketball out of bounds on a turnover with 9.6 seconds still showing on the clock.

“I thought they gave us one intentional foul and we had one of our best shooters at the line and he missed both of them and then we have our guard just throw the ball out of bounds,” said Wellsville head coach Nate Scott.

Buoyed with new life, Lisbon inbounded the basketball and it went to senior standout AJ Ramgeet who drove the left side of the lane and put in the game-winning basket with 4.3 seconds left, and time ran out in a mad scramble under the basket.

“When I put that shot up, I was nervous,” smiled Ramgeet. “Right when we got the inbound, Blaine (Barnes) trusted me with it and I just took it to the hole. I believe this is my first (game-winner). It feels great.”

“That’s a testament to AJ,” said Huckshold. “A senior just put his head down and said I’m going to go win the game, and he made a bucket at the end.”

“We had the game won, but five-of-16 from the foul line and you’re not going to beat good teams shooting five of 16,” lamented Wellsville’s Scott.

Huckshold had a great analogy about the incredible series of last-second events that turned a potential loss into a thrilling win for his team.

“Every year as a coach you win one you shouldn’t and you lose one you shouldn’t,” he said. “This may be the one we shouldn’t have won, but we pulled it out. And to have good seasons you’ve got to do things like that — you’ve got to win the tough ones, and I’ll take it.”

AJ Ramgeet led a well-balanced Lisbon offense with 22 points, five assists and three steals, while Barnes added 20 points. Aidan Ramgeet finished with seven points and seven rebounds and Logan Sturgeon six points. Ashton Hinchliffe paced the Blue Devils with 10 rebounds and Aiden Myers grabbed six rebounds.

The loss spoiled an sparking effort by Wellsville’s Darnell Roe, the Tigers outstanding guard who missed the first meeting against the Blue Devils with a foot injury. He led the Tigers with 18 points, while Austin Adkins added 17, Haydin Oliver 10, Jeron Jackson nine and Andrew Mackey eight.

“He (Roe) came back after Christmas and they’re definitely a different team (with him), 100 percent,” said Huckshold. “They’re going to be a problem down the road and we were fortunate (to win).”

“We knew coming into the game we’re a whole different team when we’re healthy and we thought we had a shot coming back in the league with everybody and know we have to have the dominos fall,” said Scott.

Wellsville came out firing from long range in the opening 16 minutes as the Tigers hit six three-pointers and took first-half quarter stop leads of 16-14 and 30-27. The Tigers took as much as a seven-point (24-27) lead in the second quarter before Lisbon closed the deficit to three points (30-27) after AJ Ramgeet hit a long trey that beat the halftime buzzer, Wellsville’s Roe led the Tigers in the first half with 13 points, including three of their six treys in the first half. Blaine Barnes led the Blue Devils in the first half with 12 points and AJ Ramgeet had eight points at the break.

Ramgeet hit a driving layup at the third-quarter buzzer to cut Wellsville’s lead to three points (44-41) while setting the stage for an absolutely wild fourth quarter.

The Tigers led by as many as four points on four occasions in the fourth quarter, the last coming at 61-57 with 45.1 seconds remaining, but the Blue Devils weren’t to be denied, outscoring the Tigers 6-1 in the remaining time, highlighted by Ramgeet’s game-winner.

“We blew it at the end, it’s (unfortunate) because we played so hard, but credit to Lisbon, they finished down the stretch and we didn’t,” said Scott.

With the win, Lisbon, which is riding a four-game winning streak, is 10-3 overall and shares the EOAC lead with Columbiana with an 8-1 mark.

Wellsville, which had a two-game win streak snapped, is 5-9 overall but 5-4 in the EOAC.

Game notes

¯ Lisbon defeated Wellsville 64-53 in the first meeting Dec. 12 in Wellsville.

¯ Wellsville held off a determined Lisbon effort to win the junior varsity game, 46-42. Zac Banks led the Tigers with 16 points. Cooper Terdina and Jett Vrable scored 13 points apiece for the Blue Devils.

¯Lisbon is idle until next Friday night when the Blue Devils host United in another EOAC game.

“A lot of motivation, they (the Golden Eagles) got us the first time and we didn’t play well, we weren’t ready for that game and I didn’t have them prepared but I’ll have them prepared this time,” said Huckshold.

Wellsville will cross the Ohio River to play the Oak Glen Golden Bears on Tuesday night.

W: 16-14-14-18–62

L: 14-13-14-22–63

WELLSVILLE SCORING: Jeron Jackson 2-4-9, Haydin Oliver 5-0-10, Darnell Roe 7-0-18, Austin Adkins 6-1-17, Clayton Kersey 0-0-0, Andrew Mackey 4-0-8. TEAM TOTALS: 24, 5-16: 62.

LISBON SCORING: Aidan Ramgeet 3-0-7, Blaine Barnes 7-1-20, Aiden Myers 2-0-4, Ashton Hinchliffe 2-0-4, AJ Ramgeet 9-3-22, Logan Sturgeon 3-0-6. TEAM TOTALS: 26, 4-10: 63.

Three-point goals: Wellsville 9 (Darnell Roe 4, Austin Adkins 4, Jeron Jackson 1); Lisbon 7 (AJ Ramgeet 1, Blaines Barnes 5, Aiden Ramgeet 1).

Total fouls: Wellsville 11, Lisbon 16. Fouled out: Ashton Hinchliffe.