Mancino's Buzzer-Beating Three-Pointer Lifts Pierson to Win Over Babylon

Dom Mancino never doubted that he was going to hit the shot.

With 4.7 seconds left, the ball bouncing on the floor in front of him, the junior guard scooped up the inbounds pass and tossed the ball from nearly half court, hitting a buzzer-beating three-pointer that lifted his Pierson boys basketball team over visiting Babylon, 51-50, and sent his teammates and the crowd into a frenzy.

“While the ball was rolling toward me, I looked around and didn’t see anyone, so I decided I was going to take the shot and see what happens,” Mancino said. “I kept telling myself, ‘I’m making it. I’m making it. I’m making it.’ I’ve never hit a game-winner before, so it was amazing. Everyone rushing me was just the greatest feeling ever.”

Mancino was hit with a controversial foul two seconds before his score, and Babylon’s Sincere McDougal (15 points) sank both of his 1-and-1 chances to give the Panthers the edge.

That call motivated Mancino to make his mad dash through midcourt.

“It wasn’t even a foul. He elbowed me in the chin. I don’t know what they were thinking,” the junior said. “I wish he’d missed the shots — but once he made them, I knew I had to do something about it.”

Mancino’s score maintains Pierson’s undefeated League V streak (4-0), as of Tuesday morning, but the Whalers’ third straight win was also made possible with the help of nearly everyone on the team.

Coming through in the first half was junior Luke Seltzer, who tallied 14 of his game-high 18 points, and nearly all of Pierson’s 19 first-half points. His younger brother, Kyle, racked up the other five, with the last two coming off a bucket with 24.3 seconds left to close the gap for the Whalers, who were down, 21-19, heading into the break.

Then junior Charlie McLean (14 points) came alive in the third, recording nine points off a three-pointer, a layup and two jumpers. He also came up with a big block at 2:40 to protect Pierson’s 32-30 lead. Luke Seltzer earned a jump ball possession for the Whalers soon after and took that control all the way for another two points. But the Panthers went on an eight-point tear to close out the quarter up, 38-34.

In the final stanza, senior guard Logan Hartstein nailed two three-point shots, sandwiching a McClean free-throw to regain the lead for Pierson, 43-40. But Babylon bounced back with a spurt of its own. With 11 seconds remaining, Mancino found Luke Seltzer on the wing, who dished the ball to junior Aven Smith in the corner. The forward swished a trifecta to knot the game at 48-48, and head coach Will Fujita called timeout to draw up the next play.

Unfortunately, the first one didn’t go as planned — with Mancino receiving the foul call at midcourt — but that didn’t stop Fujita from thinking it was still a winnable game for his Whalers.

“Credit to our coach, because he never doubted us for a second,” Mancino said. “He just kept on insisting that we were going to win and gave us a game plan that we executed.”

After McDougal’s free-throws, Fujita asked for another timeout, saying he knew 4.7 seconds was still “a lot of time to get a good look.”

“You would have never thought in any of those huddles that we were down. Everyone had their eyes on the clipboard and their eyes on me, trying to figure out what we were going to do next,” the coach said. “When you have guys who are locked in, it’s fun for a coach, and it makes the game feel like it’s moving that much slower. They still had this willingness to work together and move as a unit to get the job done.”

He added that Mancino’s make speaks volumes to what his junior guard is capable of.

“He did a really nice job moving his feet tonight. He took four or five charges. He set the tone defensively,” Fujita said. “And for that to be the only shot that he made while playing the amount of minutes he does speaks to what he’s able to do on both sides of the ball.”

Luke Seltzer also said he knew his teammate had it in him.

“It was crazy. I was praying,” he said, smiling. “He’s hit some crazy shots like that in practice before, so I thought it was coming.”

But the coach and his athletes know there’s still a lot of work to do if the Whalers want to make another state championship run.

“Some of us are newer to working with each other, and I think our chemistry is growing, but we need to spend some time with each other off the court to strengthen that bond on the court,” said Seltzer, who with his brother moved back to the district from Ireland after a two-year hiatus. “We worked hard, we were disciplined and I think we took the right shots. Now, we just have to get back to work.”

Fujita said he hopes his guys can look back at and learn from the first half to ensure they don’t end up in this situation again, but also said it’s nice to know his Whalers have it in them.

“We were kind of anemic in the first half. We couldn’t really figure out how to get the ball to the hoop, and a lot of that was just careless passes and not valuing our possessions early in the game,” the coach said. “This was the first time where I felt we were on the losing side of things for most of the game. We need to move the ball a little bit quicker against the zone, and we can’t let guys get downhill against a man.

“But, all in all, it’s about growing. We need to look back at the beginning part of the game and learn from it so we don’t end up with these last-second heroics. But it’s nice to know they have the composure to be able to make it through 32 minutes.”

Identifying and highlighting progress is what Fuijita said this season is all about, and Mancino thinks if his Pierson team can put it together in time, the Whalers can make another Final Four push.

“We’re going all the way — states, baby!” he said with a grin. “We’re taking it back.”