photo by: Jordan Holland

Wheeling Central’s Eli Sancomb handles the ball during Saturday’s game at Williamstown.

WILLIAMSTOWN — Parker Schramm has been in a rare funk at the free-throw line lately, but in a Class AA showdown with No. 1 Wheeling Central Saturday, the Williamstown senior came through at the stripe when his team needed it the most.

Tied at 55-all with four seconds left, Schramm drove to the basket and drew a foul. He watched his first attempt rattle in and out. Schramm took a deep breath, stepped back up to the line and drained the second attempt to put the Yellowjackets up one.

Wheeling Central’s Eli Sancomb, who scored a team-high 22 points, dribbled the length of the court and put up an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer, but it was off the mark to give Williamstown the 56-55 win.

“Lot of nerves,” said Schramm, who scored a game-high 27 points. “I’ve been struggling at the free-throw line a little bit lately. I don’t usually do that. Those last two, especially that first one going in and out, man, I was stressing out there, but I had confidence in myself. I’ve put a lot of work in for moments like those.”

Williamstown, ranked third in double-A, led 11-10 after a quarter but struggled from the floor in the second, scoring just six points as Central claimed a 27-17 halftime advantage.

The Maroon Knights (12-2) extended their lead to 14 midway through the third on Sancomb’s three-point play, but Schramm responded with an offensive surge, scoring Williamstown’s next 13 points to get his team within four, 40-36.

Central took a seven-point lead into the fourth after Luke Sancomb, who had 12 points on four 3-pointers in the game, buried a triple with two seconds left in the third.

Williamstown’s Jayden Bryant — scoreless through the first three quarters — knocked down a trey to open the final period. On the other end, Eli Sancomb was called for a charge to pick up his fourth foul just 51 seconds into the fourth.

“He likes to get downhill and get to the free-throw line,” Schramm said. “We thought if we could get a couple charges on him an get him foul trouble, we liked our chances a lot.”

Sancomb remained in the game and never picked up his fifth foul.

“He was able to finish out the game which was good,” said Central head coach Mel Stephens, “but it probably made him back off a little bit.”

The Yellowjackets took advantage, using a 9-0 run to take a 50-46 lead with 3:45 to go.

Central got back within one on another three-point play by Eli Sancomb and then took a one-point lead on Trey Anthony’s layup with 3:08 remaining.

The Knights led 53-52 until Bryant buried a pull-up 3-pointer with 51 seconds left to put Williamstown up two. Eli Sancomb responded with a turnaround jumper to tie, but Schramm’s ability to penetrate in the final seconds proved to be the difference.

“(Schramm) told me at one point, ‘Get me the ball. I want to take over.’ I thought he did that,” said Williamstown head coach Scott Sauro. “He’s an all-state caliber player. He wanted to put it on his shoulders at the end.”

The Knights, who had won seven in a row going into Saturday, were just 19 for 48 (39.6%) from the floor.

“Part of it was they started driving the ball really hard to the basket,” Stephens said. “The other part was we came down on offense and took some ill-advised shots. Probably gave them the opportunity to come back down on offense.”

Schramm, who had six points at halftime, finished with 27. Bryant, who was scoreless at intermission, finished with 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

“I thought we did a really good job on Parker and Jayden in the first half,” Stephens said. “Then in the second half, Parker started really driving the ball hard and we just didn’t do a good job defensively trying to help on that. He was able to put up some big numbers in the second half.”

Williamstown, which also got 13 points from Cruz Isaly, shot 40% (20 for 50) from the floor and committed just three turnovers.

“We got down 14 and felt like we had to gamble a little bit and go get them in the fullcourt,” Sauro said. “Really, it’s a credit to our kids for digging deep. All of our kids showed a lot of heart. I’m super proud of them because when we got down 14, they didn’t quit. They kept playing. They earned this victory. We have so much respect for Wheeling Central. They’re so good and we think the world of their program. We’re happy to get a win against somebody we respect so much.”

For Central, the Sancombs were the team’s only double-digit scorers. Dom Gianangeli added eight points while Max Olejasz grabbed a game-high eight boards.

“They’re mature enough to understand what we didn’t do well and what we need to get better at,” Stephens said. “We’ll come out the next game and try to improve on those things.”

The win was Williamstown’s second in a week’s span against a top-ranked team in the state. Last Saturday, the ‘Jackets dominated Tucker County, the No. 1 team in single-A, 67-42.

“It’s been a really solid week for us,” Sauro said. “Our guys are getting better. They believe in each other, and any good team has to have that.”

Schramm added, “That game means a lot. We didn’t really play our best the first half. We talked at halftime about playing more as a team and moving the ball. I think our guys did that. We have a tendency to play unselfish. We find the guy who’s scoring and he usually tends to go off. Tonight, it just happened to be me.”