Late basket lifts Heritage to win against Liberty

With his team trailing rival Liberty-Brentwood by two points and just 80 seconds remaining, Heritage-Brentwood boys basketball coach Pat Cruickshank sent the Patriots out of a timeout to play defense, asking them for one stop.

[...] he turned and said to a nearby spectator: “Boy, I’m glad I took my blood pressure medicine tonight.”

Mack, a 6-foot senior, made a supremely athletic block-rebound-layup play and Ned sank the game-winner with 16.5 seconds left for to give host Heritage a 71-70 Bay Valley Athletic League win.

After Mack blocked a three-point attempt beyond the top of the key, got the ball and swooped in for a deuce to tie things at 69, Liberty (13-4, 1-1) took a 70-69 lead on a Fabian Estrada free throw with 45.9 to play.

After using their last two timeouts on the ensuing possession, the Patriots drew up a play to get the ball to the 6-6 Ned.

“Coach drew up a play for me and I just had to come through and execute,” the junior said.

Ned scored 24 points and teammate Anthony Dennis added 23 and six rebounds.

Brandon Betson scored 13 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter and James Akinjo added 15 as the host Pride (17-3, 3-0 Tri-County Athletic League-Rock Division) won their 11th straight game.

A.J. Macaraeg’s three-pointer at the buzzer for his only points of the game thwarted a Mills comeback and gave the host Mustangs (10-8, 3-2 Peninsula Athletic League South) a win.

Karisma Ortiz had 16 points and Madeline Holland 13 and the visiting Monarchs (14-2, 4-0 West Catholic Athletic League) used a 17-2 run starting late in the second quarter to win going away against the Wildcats (14-4, 1-2), who got 16 points from Maggie Burke and 11 from Alyssa Downs.

Chace Bryson covers high school sports for The Chronicle.