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Dailey the hero as Mastery North keeps making noise in Pub's 'A' Division

01/24/2018, 1:00am EST
By Owen McCue

Mastery North's Harold Dailey scored the game-winning basket against Constitution on Tuesday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Owen McCue 
(@Owen_McCue)
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With less than a minute left in Tuesday’s game against Constitution, Harold Dailey found himself at the free throw line with a chance to tie the game.

Mastery North’s senior guard made the front end of the one-and-one, but missed the second free throw attempt, leaving his team trailing by one.

The margin still stood with 4.4 seconds left on the clock. Constitution had the ball under its own basket, and Dailey was determined to get it back and finish the job this time.

So that’s what he did, stealing the inbounds pass, spinning past a defender and laying the ball up for the game-winning basket to give the Pumas a 67-66 win before he was mobbed by his teammates, coaches and even a few fans.

“It just felt like it was my time to do it, come through for my team,” Dailey said. “I was missing free throws and layups, so it felt like I had to do this for my team.”

Mastery North trailed by as many as 16 points early in the second half. The Pumas cut Constitution’s lead to five around the midway point of the third quarter, but a three by Jabari Merritt before the end of the period gave the Generals a 55-43 lead entering the fourth.

Jahmir Marable-Williams, who scored 11 of his team-high 15 points in the second half, helped Constitution hold onto the double-digit advantage all the way up to the five-minute mark in the fourth.

Rallying behind juniors Jamir Reed and Lakeem McAilely, who combined for 16 fourth quarter points, the Pumas finished the game on a 17-4 run to erase the deficit and win the game. The refs put 0.4 seconds on the clock after Dailey’s late bucket, but senior Rodney Phillips blocked the inbounds pass and the ball bounced inbounds to run out the clock.

Reed scored 23, Phillips scored 15, Phillips had 11 and McAiley added 10 points in the win.

“That’s crazy,” Dailey said, still in a bit of shock after the game. “And to come back from a deficit every time...That’s a crazy one. I’ll remember this one forever.”

Entering this season, Mastery North was set to make some new rivals in the Public League. The Pumas jumped two rungs from the Public League’s ‘C’ to ‘A’ divisions. 

Tuesday’s improbable win improved Mastery North to 12-3 overall and 5-2 in their year in the Public League’s ‘A’ Division. The Pumas currently sit in second place, two games behind undefeated Imhotep and a half game ahead of Martin Luther King in the league standings.

Mastery North has taken down Constitution and Math Civics & Sciences two times each, and also has a win against Audenried. They lost to Imhotep by seven and King by four earlier this month during a three-game losing stretch that also featured a two-point loss to Simon Gratz, but have responded with five wins since.

The Pumas have a rematch with Imhotep on Thursday before taking on King again next Tuesday.

“We took some losses to some good teams this year and it made us better,” Mastery North coach Terrence Cook said. “It humbled us and made us better. We just want to compete and more so get our kids seen, get our kids noticed and hopefully can get them to college for free."

The Pumas have been a powerhouse in the ‘C’ Division and the Class AA level in recent years.

Dailey, who Cook mentioned is a very good student and has some Division III interest, said it’s been exciting for him to compete, and win, against the league’s larger schools during his final season.

“We know what we can do, but I feel as though it shows the city as well that we’re not just here, just one of those teams that’s just losing or in the mix,” Dailey said. “We’re one of the top teams in the city. Top teams in the ‘A’.”


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