After turning a ten-point halftime lead into a six-point deficit with five minutes remaining, Williamsport could feel a game they felt like they should’ve cruised to victory in slipping away. A team that has struggled to sustain momentum throughout the season was about to let an opportunity to build off a big win at Altoona on Saturday slip away.

But just as the going got tough, the Millionaires got going.

Williamsport rallied down the stretch, Tevin Williams made a spinning layup with a minute remaining to give Williamsport a 69-67 lead, and they held off a furious Tyrone rally in the final twenty seconds to win 75-73 at the Magic Dome on Monday evening despite a performance that coach Allen Taylor considered frustrating.

“The only two things that came out of this game for us were that we gave up a lead and we continued to fight. We didn’t fold. The second thing that was good is that we won the game,” Taylor said. “We had plenty of opportunities where we could have just shut it down, laid down, and accepted the loss, but I was proud that they didn’t. They continued to compete, and they came back doing what we were supposed to do in the end–getting the ball inside and attacking the paint.”

It looked like the Millionaires were going to run away with it in late stages of the first half. After a sluggish start against a pesky 2-3 matchup zone by Tyrone, Williamsport played one of its best quarters of the season on the offensive end in the second quarter. Williamsport moved the ball at a quick tempo, found the open man, and turned easy looks around the basket and at the three-point line into easy buckets as senior Ethan Chilson scored 11 points in the quarter, hitting three threes. But the Millionaires failed to capitalize on the momentum that helped them build a 30-20 lead with four minutes to go in the half, as Tyrone was able to play them even the final four minutes of the quarter and go into halftime down 38-28.

“The ball has to move. Sometimes the ball sticks and we stare and we dribble into dead zones. I thought Ethan Chilson had a phenomenal first half and knocked down four 3s, which stretched that zone and made it easier for us to get the ball inside,” Taylor said. “We were able to make some plays where the ball touched one side of the floor, skipped to the other side, and we were able to get (Kason Ulmer) some looks inside.”

Tyrone quickly recaptured momentum in the third quarter, scoring the first five points of the frame and eventually tied the game in the final minute of the quarter. But Williamsport scored four points in the final fourteen seconds, capped off by a Tevin Williams three-point-play the old-fashioned way to take a four-point lead to the final frame.

The Golden Eagles — who made made 11 3-pointers on the evening — need just three minutes to turn that four-point deficit into a six-point lead, putting the Millionaires on the ropes. But Kaison Ulmer, who did an excellent job all evening of staying active against the zone and finishing down low, kept the Millionaires within reach.

“I was really trying to go side to side down there and just find the open holes, because they were kind of leaving some gaps open, and I was trying to find them,” Ulmer said.

Williamsport rallied to tie it, and took the lead back with 1:30 to play in the game off of a great crosscourt pass from Mekhi Gaston to Naazir Lowe. Tyrone went back down and tied it up. But, Williams put the Millionaires up to stay. He caught a pass in the high post, took two dribbles, spun at the right low block, and laid it in to give Williamsport the 69-67 lead.

“I knew my team trusted me and was giving me the ball. My point guard made a good decision passing it into the middle. I knew it was tied and the right side was open to attacked,” Williams said. “He bumped me and beat me to the spot, and I knew help was coming down, so if I spun off, it was a wide-open layup.”

The Millionaires led by six with the ball with 27 seconds remaining. But Tyrone was able to cut it to two in the final seconds, and had a sideline inbounds play in the frontcourt to tie or win the game with 1.6 seconds remaining. The attempted alley-oop came up short, and the buzzer expired as Williamsport won their second in a row.

Williamsport 75, Tyrone 73

TYRONE (73)

Carter Gwinn 2 2-2 6, Billy Rudden 0 0-0 0, Eli Woomer 7 2-2 21, Ashton Emigh 6 0-1 12, Mason Emigh 4 0-1 8, Braydon Parsens 0 2-2 2, Ben Walk 9 0-2 24, Owen Oakes 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 6-10 73.

WILLIAMSPORT (75)

Naazir Lowe 3 2-4 9, Saleem Overton 2 0-0 4, Quincy Williams 1 0-0 2, Maurice Baines 0 0-0 0, Tevin Williams 6 4-7 17, 4 2-2 11, Ethan Chilson 5 2-2 16, Kason Ulmer 7 2-3 16. Totals 28 12-18 75.

Tyrone 17 11 21 24 – 73

Williamsport 13 25 15 22 -75

3-point goals: Tyrone 11 (Walk 6, Woomer 5), Williamsport 7 (Chilson 4, T. Williams 1, Gaston 1, Lowe 1).