Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville’s Brody Clifford (3) goes strong to the basket for a layup Tuesday night against Cambridge. Looking on are Red Devil teammates Griffin Straub (14) and Lucas Causey (2). Clifford scored 16 points, but the Red Devils dropped a 54-53 decision to visiting Cambridge on John Jenkins Court.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — I’m not sure Garrett Carpenter has ever heard of Tyus Edney, but his game-winning shot Tuesday night was very similar in the way it developed.

With Cambridge trailing St. Clairsville, 53-52, time winding down, Carpenter, a three-sport standout, took the inbounds pass, dribbled the length of the court and banked in a layup with 0.2 seconds remaining as the visiting Bobcats stunned the Red Devils, 54-53, on John Jenkins Court in front of a large and boisterous crowd in boys’ basketball action.

Edney did the same in 1995 to lift UCLA over Missouri, 75-74, in an NCAA Tournament Round of 32 game. The only difference, Edney’s was a buzzer-beater.

St. Clairsville called timeout and Niko Jacob’s long baseball pass found the hands of Griffin Straub, but his off-balance heave from the left wing was off the mark. The victory gave Cambridge (13-2) a regular-season sweep of the Red Devils (10-3).

The pair of OVAC Class 4A heavyweights exchanged the lead five times in the final 2:35.

“The beauty about playing basketball here is that we’re in a bunch of games like that,” veteran St. Clairsville head coach Ryan Clifford said. “It was back-and-forth, but I will take my guys any day of the week – the way we played, the way we never gave in.”

Jacob gave the Red Devils a 53-52 edge when he stole a pass at midcourt and dribbled in for a twisting layup with nine seconds showing. After a Cambridge timeout, Carpenter went baseline-to-baseline for his dramatic game-winner.

Some hot outside shooting by the Bobcats allowed them to build a 27-11 lead with just under three minutes left in the first half. St. Clairsville closed the half on a 9-0 run to trail, 27-20.

“We didn’t get off to a great start and this team might be the best practice team I’ve ever had,” Clifford noted. “But for the first time all season we had back-to-back practices that weren’t really good, but we weathered the storm and our maturity showed.

The Red Devils crept to within four, 39-35, after three quarters to set the stage for a frenetic fourth panel.

Straub drew St. Clairsville even at 44 with 3:42 on the clock and the Red Devils took their first lead, 46-45, since they led 2-0 on an offensive rebound and putback by the 6-7 Indiana, Pa. recruit.

Cambridge had a three-point lead, 50-47, before Brody Clifford’s scooping layup in traffic. Carpenter tickled the twine twice on foul shots to bump the count to 52-49, but Straub’s strong inside move cut the deficit to 52-51 at the 26-second mark.

The Red Devils called timeout and Jacob came up with the steal and layup that appeared to give the hosts the game-winning points, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“Hopefully we’ll see them again,” Clifford added.

Straub led all scorers with 20, while Clifford added 16 and Jacob 14. Straub also had nine of St. Clairsville’s 21 rebounds.

Carpenter’s 18 points paced the Bobcats, who also received 15 from Mason Gregg. Cambridge drilled 10 bonus goals and got 21 bench points from Austin Jenkins (12) and Cam Lauer (9).

The Red Devils don’t have time to dwell on what-could-have-been as John Marshall visits tonight.