It takes scoring, rebounding, passing and defense to win basketball games.
And sometimes it takes a little bit of luck, which the Georgia Northwestern Bobcats got on Saturday in a 66-64 win over Georgia Gwinnett College in the final game of the 2016 Tim Walthour Memorial Tournament.
Tied at 60 with 3:36 to play, the Grizzlies missed a pair of free throws that would have given them the lead. But it's what happened next that left both teams and the fans shaking their heads.
The Grizzlies crashed the boards on the second miss and grabbed the offensive rebound. The put-back rattled off the rim, but once again the Grizzlies managed to corral the loose ball under the basket and layed it up off the glass once more.
Once again it missed.
By the time 20 frantic seconds had clicked off the clock, the Grizzlies had grabbed six straight offensive rebounds on the possession. However, six straight shots under the Bobcats' basket simply wouldn't go down before Georgia Northwestern was finally able to get their hands on the ball and secure it.
Point guard Alec Rattanaxay would draw a foul and drained two free throws with 3:15 to go, but the lid on the basket would continue to stay airtight for the Grizzlies on the other end as they missed four more shots in the paint inside of two feet over the next two minutes.
Patrick Simmons added two free throws with 1:38 to play to boost the lead to four, but Georgia Gwinnett would finally get back on the board on two Donte Williams free throws with 1:06 to go, cutting the Bobcats' lead back to two.
Andrew Johnson would miss from inside with 35 seconds remaining, but the junior from Chickamauga came up big on the defensive end by taking a charge from Nico Tolbert moments later. Then after Rattanaxay made 1 of 2 free throws with 23.5 seconds to play, Johnson got his feet set in time to take another charge from Tolbert 12 seconds later.
Simmons would hit 1 of 2 from the line with 10.6 seconds to go, extending the lead back to four and the Grizzlies would finally get a shot to drop, but not until a scant :00.1 was left showing on the clock.
"This is another one we weren't expecting to win," head coach David Stephenson said. "They beat us twice last year, once by 41 points, so we just wanted to play well and use this (game) as a tune for Monday's game (against Southern Crescent), because (Georgia Gwinnett) plays a similar style."
The Bobcats rallied from an early 7-2 hole to grab a 10-9 lead, but the Grizzlies would regain the lead and hold on to it for the most of the rest of the first half. However, a six-foot Darrius Fugh jumper with 12 seconds left would put the Bobcats up 26-25 and Fugh preserved the lead with an emphatic block on the other end on what looked to be a sure-fire lay-up.
Georgia Gwinnett would make a run in the second half to take their biggest lead, 44-37, but the Bobcats would counter with a 19-4 run that gave them a 56-45 advantage with just over eight minutes to play.
However, the lead would not last as the athletic Grizzlies used a 12-4 run of their own, knotting the game at 60 with 4:30 to play and setting the stage for the wild finish.
Fugh had 19 points to lead three Bobcats in double digits. He also had a team-high eight boards. Rattanaxay had 12 points and five assists, while Daniel Parrish dropped in 11 points. Simmons and Johnson added six points each.
"The biggest difference today was Andrew taking six charges," Stephenson added. "That was huge. Free throws were huge today too and we got big contributions from everyone today so I was pleasantly surprised to get this one."
Travis Frazier had a team-high 13 points for the Grizzlies, while Marcus Wilkerson added 12.
Georgia Northwestern also enjoyed the advantage at the charity stripe. The Bobcats connected on 19 of 22 attempts, while the Grizzlies were just 10 of 16 from the line.
The Bobcats (4-3) will close out the pre-Christmas break portion of the schedule on Monday as former region foe Southern Crescent Tech comes to the Rossville Athletic Center for a 5 p.m. tip.