The look on Douglas coach Keith Lewis' face said it all.
"Finally," Lewis said with a broad smile. "Finally."
It was bound to happen sooner or later. After battling through a season chock-full of near-misses and almosts, the Douglas boys' basketball team finally found a way to pull it all together at the right time.
And it couldn't have possibly come at any better time.
With their season hanging precariously in the balance and needing a win to keep even the slimmest playoff hopes alive, the Tigers just found a way to win, hanging on for a 58-50 road win over arch rival Carson High on Friday night.
The Tigers got a bit of everything they've been seeing all season, from their token third-quarter meltdown where they saw a two-point lead turn into a five-point deficit in a little less than three minutes to their best outside shooting performance since early December with nine 3-pointers as a team.
Carson assistant coach Carlos Mendeguia said Douglas took advantage of the Senators focusing on 6-foot-10 Keith Olson inside.
"When you're focusing down low like we were, you have to give up something," Mendeguia said.
Mendeguia also praised the Senators' effort.
"The kids played really well. We competed, we rebounded well, we defended well, their shots just went in," he said.
Down by four with a little more than four minutes left in the game, Olson came up big when he stole the ball and shot up the gap, covered nearly three-quarters of the court and launched up for a monster two-handed slam, drawing the foul and a deafening roar from the Douglas fans packed into Carson's Morse Burley Gymnasium.
He converted the free throw, drawing the Tigers to within one at 43-42.
"I can't really explain what was going through my head right at that moment," Olson said. "I was just thinking 'Get the points.' I guess you don't really even think about things like that. You just go for it.
"It was a game-changer. It got out fans back into it, and it was something I think we needed at that moment."
Lewis agreed.
"It was looking like it was going to be the same old story again," Lewis said. "But that play turned the game around. It just gave us that boost. I really did have a feeling at that point that we were going to be OK."
Kevin Brush, who had 10 points on the night, followed Olson's 3-point play with a basket but Douglas' Bryan Brady hit a big 3-pointer on the next trip down the floor to tie the game up at 45.
Adam Houghton put Carson up by two with a layup, but Olson tied it again on the following possession. The Tigers didn't trail again.
And Douglas' Skylar McNabb guided the Tigers down the stretch to clinch the win.
McNabb, who scored 13 points on the night with three 3-pointers, had a three and four key free throws to close out the game for the Tigers.
"What can I say?" McNabb said. "This game was so important to us. We knew we had to win. We've had great talent all year, but we just haven't found ways to pull it all together at the right time. Tonight we played our best game as a team all year.
"Everyone contributed, even the guys who didn't play. They worked so hard in practice. We won this as a team."
Olson had 14 points for the Tigers (9-17, 4-7), Eric Emm added 13 points, Brady had seven and Reese Kizer had four.
"We knew McNabb and Emm could shoot. It was other guys coming off the bench and shooting like they did, we didn't expect that," Mendeguia said.
For the Senators (10-18, 4-8), Adam Houghton shot 8-of-12 from the foul line and scored 12 points, Jack Jacquet had 11 points and Brian Welch scored nine points, Kevin Brush had eight points and Kyle Bacon added five.
"He gave us a presence inside," said Mendeguia of Jacquet, a 6-2 junior. "He battled with Olson and he took the ball inside. He played very hard."
