Cvetinovic’s last-second dunk lifts VES boys
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Chris Humphreys / Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: February 26, 2008
The 6-foot-7 senior forward, who has signed a letter of intent to play basketball at the University of Akron next year, had a wide-open path down the middle of the lane for what was going to be the easiest basket of the night.
The most unbelievable part of the dream was that it was a first-round Virginia Independent School Division II basketball game against visiting Walsingham Academy - and the game was tied at 45 with 5.2 seconds left to play.
Cvetinovic dunked the ball, though not with the viciousness he wanted, and the Bishops' claimed a 47-45 victory over the Trojans on Tuesday night.
"I knew I was going to finish, but I wanted to dunk it hard," Cvetinovic said. "I was cramping a little with the intensity of the game. I wasn't able to pull something special."
With the win, VES travels to Charlottesville on Thursday for its fourth matchup of the season against Miller School.
"This win means a lot," Cvetinovic said. "It's the second time in school history that we are going to the second round of (the state tournament). Miller is a terrific team but we are going to try our best and see what happens."
The Mavericks have defeated the Bishops in their three previous meetings.
"Some people were a little upset with how the pairings came out, but you have to do what have to do," Bishops coach John Windham said. "We just have to take care of business."
Cvetinovic's dunk with 2.3 seconds left came off an inbounds play on the Trojans' sideline.
Cvetinovic made a move across the top of the lane toward Brandon Robenson, who was inbounding the ball.
Cvetinovic's defender over-committed and got caught up in some traffic when Robenson's pass allowed Cvetinovic to dive back across the lane underneath his defender, where he found the paint empty.
"We played some smart basketball in the last minute," Windham said. "We knew we had to get the ball in either Will White's or Nik's hands. Nik just came to the ball and he knew what to do with it."
The Bishops (16-10) had led the entire second half until Malcolm Doyal tied the game at 45 with 51 seconds to play.
VES almost didn't get a chance to win it with a dunk.
White missed a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 15 seconds left, but Cvetinovic battled a trio of Trojans to come down with the offensive rebound.
He was fouled with 13.9 seconds left before he could get a shot up and Walsingham was still under the limit.
The Trojans, with another foul to waste before the Bishops reached the bonus, fouled again. This time setting up the game-winning, inbounds play.
Cvetinovic scored a game-high 24 points, including all seven of VES' points in the fourth quarter. He also had 12 rebounds, two steals and an assist.
The Bishops' Jacob Pierce added six points and 11 rebounds. Alex Herzing had eight points and four rebounds. White had five points and five assists.
"Nik is a constant," Windham said. "It was nice to see the other guys stepping up."
Keenan Brown led Walsingham with 15 points.
There were 10 lead changes and one tie in the first quarter.
The only time the Trojans trailed in the second quarter was in the final six seconds after White's bucket gave VES a 25-24 lead.
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