Brayden Cespedes remembers the Tuscarora Titans very well.
“Oh, I don’t really like them,” North Hagerstown’s junior guard said. “So, you know, it’s just simple … We come here. We do our work and then you think you can come here and beat us … Nah.”
So, he makes it his personal mission to make sure Titans don’t forget Brayden Cespedes.
For the second consecutive season, Cespedes made the final signature play to lift the Hubs to a heart-pounding 80-77 overtime victory over the Titans, this time in the Maryland Class 3A West Section I quarterfinal.
On Friday, Cespedes capped his school-record breaking 36-point performance with a sequence of big plays that erased one bad instance.
First, he crashed the boards to score on a putback with 7.9 seconds remaining to give North a 78-77 lead. Then, after Tuscarora turned the ball over on a charging foul, Cespedes finished the job.
He went to the foul line for two shots with 1.9 seconds remaining, but missed them both. But Cespedes used his generously measured 5-foot-10 frame to outjump a taller pair of Titans for a long rebound – while getting fouled again – near the foul line.
(Teammates) just said I got springs in my legs, so I guess I just got up,” he said. “I knew I missed it, so I was going to try to get up and get it. And, you know, it was clutch time, and we had to go to win the game.”
This time, he made both free throws with 0.3 seconds remaining to make sure the Hubs won a game they nearly let get away. The Titans missed wide left on a desperation three-pointer on the buzzer.
Even all this action doesn’t top Cespedes’ game-winning move in last year’s section semifinal game. The then-sophomore guard scooped up a loose ball and drove the floor for a layup with :01 remaining on March 4 to give the Hubs a 54-52 win over the Titans.
Friday’s win moves the fourth-seeded Hubs into the West Section I semifinals on the road against top-seeded Oakdale on Monday at 6 p.m.
“I think those guys – Brayden, Joey (Dorsey) – have a will to win and push through it,” said North coach Nate Naylor.
They pretty much had to.
The Hubs led by 25-17 after one quarter and 41-32 at the half by using a pressing defense that pushed Tuscarora into numerous turnovers for breakaway points. Cespedes had 13 and Dorsey added 12 in the first half as North scored 13 layups in the first 16 minutes.
North pushed out to a 51-38 lead with 4:00 left in the third quarter on a Dorsey free throw – his first point of the second half and his last until :50 to go in overtime (totaling a 15:10 drought).
After Dorsey’s third-quarter point, Tuscarora gummed up the Hubs’ offensive flow and 12-1 run in those last four minutes to cut the deficit to 52-50 to end the period.
“We’ve been in this in our last, however many games. It’s like, we’ll get up 12, but we don’t want to push it to. We want to make it exciting,” Naylor said, almost sarcastically.
“We had week before last, two overtime games, and then another tight game. We had a overtime game Monday. Overtime game Wednesday, and then a tight game against Urbana Friday. Then we had both North-South games, which were close. We should be ready for these kinds of games.”
Tuscarora stayed close, but trailed 65-62 after Tristan Redick hit a free throw with :10.1 remaining in regulation. But the Titans’ Zack Byrd hit a three from the top of the key as time ran out to tie the game and send it to overtime.
The Titans scored the first four points of overtime on an Enoch Adeyemi layup off the tip and a pair of Byrd free throws. North tied the game and took a 76-75 lead on a pair of Cespedes free throws with :24.2 remaining.
Jayden Bowens scored on a putback with :17 remaining to give the Titans a 77-76 lead, setting the stage for Act II of Cespedes heroics. He scored North’s last seven points of the game.
“Deep down, I’m a dog,” Cespedes said. “So. I’m going to do what I have do to win a game, whether it’s free throws or rebounds. But I got to thank my teammates, my coaches, for believing in me. That’s it.
“(Tuscarora) beat us here last time by, like, 20 (75-50 on Jan. 23). This time we were ready. We persevered. We got him out of here.”
Cespedes and the Hubs set a number of school records in the game, starting with his 36 points in a playoff game topping the mark of 34 set by Dee Mency, ironically on Feb. 28, 2006.
It was his fifth 30-point game of the season, one short of the mark set by John Smothers in 1971-72 season.
Cespedes also set a record with 11 points in overtime, eclipsing the mark of 10 set Ja’Ron Nicholson on Feb. 16 against Heritage Academy. And his 22 free throws in a playoff game broke a mark of 19-19 set by Phil Young in 1985.
North (13-8) has won all four of its overtime games this season, including three in the last four outings. The Hubs also set a playoff record by forcing 28 turnovers in the game.
Cespedes also produced nine rebounds, six assists and eight steals to round out his game.
Dorsey finished with 15 with seven assist, three assists and three steals, while Nicholson had 12 points and three steals. Redick added 13 points.
Byrd and Sam Cooper led Tuscarora with 18 each, while Jayden Bowers added 17.
“I think this was a playoff basketball thing,” Naylor said. “What you see a lot is desperation basketball, right? It’s not the regular season no more, so there is no next game. Like I say all the time, our (Central Maryland Conference), you’re battle-tested all the time.
“You got to play every night and you’re playing somebody good. for the most part. Tuscarora is a good team and you knew they were going make a run at some point. You got give them a lot of credit for that. But the question was how are we going to respond to that?”
