Giannattasio Sinks Shot in Final Seconds; Chatham Advances

The end of the Chatham boys' basketball team's first-round state tournament game against Lincoln played out in dramatic, epic fashion.

With less than 25 seconds left in the contest, Lincoln took a 49-48 lead over Chatham after a huge three-point shot by Donovan McClean. But Chatham got the ball back, and with under 10 seconds to go, senior Chris Conroy passed the ball across the court to senior Kevin Giannattasio, who heroically won the game on a shot under the basket.

"Coming down, there were 10 seconds left," said Giannattasio. "Coach didn't call timeout, so I wasn't really thinking too much. I think that's what enabled me to make the shot."

The game was neck and neck throughout the entire game between the evenly matched teams. In total there were 11 lead changes in the game—seven in the fourth quarter alone. Chatham is 16-10, while Lincoln is 15-10.

"I thought we all played great," said Conroy. "It was back and forth the whole game and they are a very athletic team with some good players. But we played solid all around."

Chatham sophomore Jonathan Berntsen started the game off with a three-pointer, which was his first of three on the night. Soon afterward, Chatham went on a 6-0 run to establish a seven-point lead, which would turn out to be its largest lead of the night. The Lions responded with an 8-0 run of their own and finished the first on top, 12-11.

Both teams came out firing in the second quarter. A few minutes into the period, both Conroy and Berntsen led the Cougars on a dominant 10-0 run.

But Lincoln senior Tre Brooks made matters even more interesting by closing the quarter out with two three-point shots, one of which was nailed right at the buzzer.  The score was 27-26 Chatham going into the half.

Brooks continued his hot shooting in the third quarter by opening up with a layup and free throw to put his team up by one. Soon afterward, he made a rare high school slam dunk on a Lincoln breakaway.  

Chatham junior Brendan Damodaran began his late game heroics by tying the game up with a wide open three-pointer. He had two other three-point plays in the period and scored 13 points in the second half alone.

His play set up Giannattasio's shot at the end of the game.

Damodaran finished with 17 points, while Berntsen added 13 and Conroy had 10. On the other side of the ball, Brooks led the Lions with 18 points and Marquise Hallman contributed 10 of his own. Both teams spread the ball around, and both had six players with at least one basket on the night.

"I think we played tough," said Giannattasio. "Everybody contributes on our team. We are really deep and anyone can come in, help out, contribute, and do their part."

Chatham's next state tournament game will be played this Thursday.

"We have another good team to play, but we are confident and hopefully we will be ready," said Chatham Head Coach Todd Ervin.