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McLean appeared to have secured a senior-night victory when Iftoni sank a floater with fewer than three seconds remaining. Yorktown answered with a three-quarter-court heave at the buzzer, stunning the Highlanders 52-51.

The rivalry matchup offered McLean a chance to avenge a 10-point loss to the Patriots less than a month earlier and end a string of defeats.

“We saw them before and we knew what to do differently this time,” senior guard Logan Baldrate said. “We knew coming into this game that it was going to be challenging and physical, but we practiced for it.”

McLean opened with an all-senior starting five following the senior-night festivities. Strong defense kept the first quarter close, with the Highlanders holding a 13-12 edge after eight minutes.

The teams continued trading baskets in the second quarter. Sophomores Kael Adda and Nahom Kidane entered for McLean and contributed on both ends of the floor. A last-second basket sent the Highlanders into halftime leading 27-24.

“We had a good first half but we wanted [the lead] to be larger,” senior JW Riggins said. “Ideally we would’ve been up by six or seven but we were happy with the lead we had and knew we had to hold.”

McLean opened the second half with a 3-pointer, followed by a momentum-shifting charge drawn by senior Jake Bell. Yorktown quickly responded with consecutive 3-pointers to pull even.

Head coach Mike O’Brien rotated much of his lineup, sending players in for short stretches. Yorktown moved ahead on a layup with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter, but Bell closed the period by blocking a 3-point attempt into the stands. The Patriots entered the fourth with a 37-36 lead.

Yorktown opened the final quarter with two difficult layups, but neither team managed to take control. The lead and momentum continued changing hands until the score reached 49-49.

McLean inbounded the ball with 20 seconds left but could not create a shot and called timeout. The same sequence unfolded after the next inbound. On its third attempt, with eight seconds remaining, McLean found Iftoni for a floating two-pointer that put the Highlanders ahead with less than three seconds to play.

As McLean’s students and players celebrated, Yorktown called timeout with 2.4 seconds remaining. The Patriots inbounded the ball to their point guard, who launched a shot from roughly three-quarters of the court. It struck the backboard and dropped through the hoop, delivering Yorktown’s dramatic one-point victory.

“There’s honestly nothing we could have done at that moment,” Baldrate said. “We needed to prevent ourselves from being in that position and we didn’t.”

McLean will face Herndon on Feb. 17 in the first round of the district tournament. A victory would move the Highlanders closer to securing a regional berth and repeating last season’s postseason success.

“This game has to be a comeback game for us,” Riggins said. “We lost to them a week ago by only five; we know what we have to do to beat them and help shift momentum into the later rounds of the postseason.”