LAKE WORTH – Atlantic knocked off undefeated Lake Worth, 41-40.
The Lake Worth gymnasium was jam-packed prior to the game. Everyone had been waiting to see Lake Worth put its undefeated record on the line against Atlantic.
Both teams started out slow with a missed shot here and there. But Lake Worth would kick in high gear and quickly go up 5-0 in the first quarter.
Atlantic quickly rebounded and cut Lake Worth’s lead to 7-6 at the end of the first quarter. The Eagles sluggish start was primarily attributed to early foul trouble.
The second quarter held a little more action as both seemed to settle down. T. Taylor led the Trojans in scoring at halftime with seven points, while Rodwens Albert led the Eagles with five points.
Lake Worth had a 22-18 lead going into halftime despite the Eagles surging late in the second quarter.
Atlantic would have its first lead of the night after Albert crossed one Lake Worth defender and hit a clutch three-pointer to make the game 27-25 with 2:57 left in the third quarter.
Lake Worth would start to feel the pressure to make something happen after Atlantic went up 34-30 with 6:21 left in the fourth quarter.
The home crowd of fans began to roar in the fourth quarter as Atlantic went up 38-33 with 5:02 left in the fourth quarter. The Trojans would surge back and close the gap down to 38-37 with 3:54 left in the fourth.
As Lake Worth would tie the game with 1:50 left in the fourth, the Lake Worth crowd began to roar again screaming, “Lake Worth!”, while the Atlantic crowd would roar screaming, “Atlantic!”
as time was winding down.
With game tied at 40-40 with 6.8 seconds left in the game, the Trojans would foul Eagles junior shooting guard Kadeem Wilkes, who would miss his first free throw. You could literally hear the air leave the arena on Atlantic’s side.
Eagles head coach Brad Flaig would call a timeout after the missed shot to calm the nerves of his team. Wilkes would go back out, take a deep breath, and make the second free throw to put Atlantic up 41-40 with 6.8 seconds left in the game.
The Trojans would throw the ball in bounds and push the ball up court, but the Atlantic defense was on high alert and forced the Trojans into a desperation three-pointer that would be air balled as the clock expired.
Albert, who earned Player of the Game honors, dropped 16 points for Atlantic.
“I was able to score by going to the basket and moving without the ball,” Albert said. “We came in fired up and ready to end Lake Worth’s streak. We knew we should’ve beat them the first time we played, so we took it out on them the second time.”
Albert’s performance was fueled by some timely motivation.
“Not starting the game got me mad, and I just had to do what I had to do,” Albert said. “We’re going to states. We coming once we get all of our key parts. We coming baby!”
Atlantic (8-6) pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season by far. It will be interesting to see the trajectory of both squads after having such a prominent win by Atlantic and a devastating loss by Lake Worth (13-1).
NOTE: Trojans senior guard Japhet Medor led all scores with 17 points.
