HANOVER — With less than 35 seconds remaining in Tuesday night’s game, the Lebanon High boys basketball team clenched a one-point lead at Hanover and held possession under its own basket coming out of a timeout.

The Marauders were sitting in a full-court, man-to-man press in hopes of getting a five-second call or forcing a turnover. All Raiders coach Kieth Matte was looking for was to get the ball in, forcing Hanover to foul to stop the clock.

Calvin Bates had other plans, though. Facing away from the baseline, the guard made a stutter step, channeling moves from his time spent at wideout for the Raiders’ football team and faking out his Hanover defender to break away into the open court.

Taking a baseball-esque pass from Braeden Falzarano in stride, Bates finished off the play with a layup to stretch Lebanon’s lead to 43-40. The Marauders called a timeout, but two missed 3-pointers on their final possession let the Raiders escape with the three-point victory.

“We line up four across, so we have the length of the floor to work with,” said Matte, whose team stayed a perfect 10-0. “We said in the timeout, ‘Hey, it’s a big floor.’ Braeden’s got a heck of an arm; he’s a heck of a baseball player. The first goal is just to get the ball in and make the free throws. But when they went full deny, Braeden made a strike down the floor to Calvin.”

Added Bates on the play: “That was a football cut. The play is usually flash to the ball, but it was hard deny. Coach always says if it is hard deny, you just got to go for it.”

Hanover (7-3) truly had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds. Taking the ball out on the far sideline with 10.6 seconds left, Mason Gantrish attempted a long ball, hitting the rim. Will Cahoon grabbed the rebound and found Max Galbraith, yet his heave was off the mark.

Marauders coach Tim Winslow said the play wasn’t executed as it was drawn up, showing some frustration because they go over it in practice. Lebanon, however, was giving them room inside the perimeter but playing tough on the outside.

“We would’ve had exactly what we wanted if we had played it correctly,” said Winslow, who was wearing custom Nikes. “They have a high basketball IQ. They would’ve let us pound it down into the paint and score that way, but they really made it hard on us for our perimeter play.”

Hanover led, 35-33, with 4:48 remaining, yet a Jack Stone three-point play and Bates 3-pointer in front of the Lebanon bench with 2:12 to play swung the game to the Raiders, who grabbed a 41-35 lead.

Hanover wouldn’t go quietly. Trevor Pierce converted the first half of a one-and-one and Cahoon had a strong putback to make it 41-38. With 34 seconds to go, Brett Simmons was crashing to the floor but was able to get off a pass to Cahoon, who converted with a layup.

The score put Lebanon up by just a point and set up Bates’ move.

“When it comes down to the last four minutes of the game, and I just told my kids this, it is the team that plays closer to perfection that’s going to take it,” Winslow said. “And they just played a couple possessions better than we did. That possession didn’t lose it. The possession at the end when we ran that play, that didn’t lose it. One possession—- how many times did we have a breakaway layup that we missed?”

Karsten Hansen led the Raiders with 16 points, and Bates had seven. Both Stone and Falzarano finished with six points.

Simmons scored a team-high 11 points while Galbraith added nine and Cahoon had eight.

NOTES: The two teams meet again on Friday night at Lang Metcalf Gym. They split the season series a year ago. … Both Lebanon’s C.J. Childs and Hanover’s Jacob Kubik-Pauw fouled out. … Manchester West principal Richard Dichard served as one of the game’s referees. … Hanover won the JV contest, 52-32.

Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.

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