Right man, right place, right time.
On a night when Euclid looked left for dead early in the fourth quarter against ultra-talented Bedford, Devon Jennings and the Panthers were all right in the end.
Jennings gathered in a pass off a mad scramble as time was winding down and hit a 3-pointer with 2.3 seconds left in regulation to help Euclid complete a frenzied fourth-quarter rally and lift the Panthers to a dramatic 61-60 victory over the Bearcats on Friday at Doc Daugherty Gymnasium.
Jennings - a News-Herald football all-star as a wide receiver/defensive back - hit just 1 of his first 11 shots from beyond the arc. But his second 3-pointer on a tough shooting night wiped out what was a 13-point Bedford lead with 6 minutes, 26 seconds to play in the fourth quarter and evened Euclid's record at 1-1.
"Howard (Drake) got the ball and I screamed as loud as could for the ball," Jennings said of the wild final possession that followed a pair of missed free throws by Bedford. "I had faith in the shot and knocked it down.
"I guess it is the same when I am on the football field - I just want to be that guy with the ball in his hands to help my team win."
Jennings (10 points, six rebounds) had plenty of help in getting the "W" for his team, mostly from seniors Darrell Blanton and LaBrayant Ambercrombie.
Blanton scored 24 points, pulled down 12 rebounds, blocked four shots, had four steals and took three charges. Ambercrombie, whose 3-pointer with 16 seconds left in the game pulled Euclid to within 60-58, scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter.
The heroics of Jennings, Blanton and Ambercrombie helped the Panthers come back from a 10-point halftime hole and a 50-37 deficit with just over 6 minutes to play in the game.
"We haven't won many games like that, where it is sloppy for both teams, but we kept it close and felt like if we could get to the bench we would have a chance to be aggressive," Euclid coach Sean O'Toole said. "We never felt particularly good on the bench the whole game like we could never really get into a rhythm or into a good rotation until late in the game.
"But Devon is our best shooter, and even though he didn't shoot the ball particularly well, that is our guy. Darrell and LaBrayant were big-time gamers tonight. It wasn't always pretty, but it is a quality win over a very good team."
Bedford, whose potent starting five is comprised of all juniors, got 16 points from Randal Holt, 14 points and 15 rebounds from Reggie Keely and 10 points from Ladell Trotty.
A three-point play by Robert Johnson put the Bearcats seemingly in command at 50-37 with 6:26 to play in the fourth quarter, but the Panthers closed the game on a 24-10 run.
Just before Euclid went on its game-winning surge, Blanton - the quiet standout who was an all-district selection as a junior - urged his team to play with more energy as they came out of a timeout. The Panthers responded, and Jennings put the exclamation point on things with a rainbow triple.
"When we were down 13, we didn't have any energy, but once we started dwindling down their lead, we got the momentum," Blanton said. "It was all about fast breaks and pressure for us. We started getting bucket after bucket and Devon hit the big shot."
For Ambercrombie, who knocked down two of the biggest 3-pointers of the night to keep the Panthers within striking distance late in the game, Jennings' big shot was no surprise.
And neither was the team's resiliency.
"It's hard to struggle like we did most of the night, but we came out in the second half and really stepped up," Ambercrombie said. "We really started to gain confidence when things started going our way in the fourth quarter."
Euclid also got four key points in the final two minutes from Brandon Rollins.