LONGMONT — Justinian Jessup knew the situation. Both teams were, well, pretty awful at the free-throw line Saturday afternoon. And he was one of three Longmont boys who missed the front end of one-and-one situation over the closing possessions in a game that was as tight from start to finish as one of the parking spaces in front of his school.
But with seven seconds to play, Jessup made two foul shots to seal the Trojans’ 41-40 squeaker in Class 4A nonleague play in front of a packed house.
The victory pushed Longmont to 19-0 as the Trojans stayed atop the Associated Press 4A media poll. Holy Family, which slipped to 16-3, probably will stay at No. 2. The Tigers, the state champions in 3A a year ago, have been convincing with their jump.
But back to Jessup and the bad free-throw shooting … The two teams were a combined 4-of-13 from the field at halftime and finished 15-of-29. Longmont finished 7-of-16. But Jessup made the ones that counted.
“The second was close,” the 6-foot-4 junior said of an offering that rattled around the rim before dropping through the net. “It’s something we have to improve on.”
Jeff Kloster, who has been the Trojans’ head coach for 21 years, knows his exceptional teams in the past all made 70-75 percent of their free throws, and this season’s group needs to get in line.
“It was bad,” Kloster said. “It has to be a point of emphasis for us.”
Otherwise, this was a back-and-forth battle in front of a packed house between two teams hoping to go far into the playoffs, and it showed — there were more than a dozen lead changes and no more than a three-point lead until the closing moments.
Ultimately, behind Jessup (team-high 11 points), Blake O’Grady (10, and he played on a bum ankle), Kevin Mitchell and a handful of others who contributed, Longmont went on an 8-2 run to open the fourth quarter that proved decisive.
The Trojans’ defense was good again. “Only two teams have scored more than 50 on them,” Tigers coach Pete Villecco said.
So the pace was slow, but neither team complained. In fact, it tended to show that Holy Family can display patience and bang inside — Luke Golter and Austin Brown fared well underneath the basket.
Tigers junior guard Chris Helbig led all scorers with 15 points and he threw in a 3-pointer with 0:00.7 to play. He flirted with drawing a foul call, but never got it. Luke Golter added 13 points and Brown nine.
However, Villecco said, “(the Trojans) did some of the little things better than us. The 50-50 balls, they got them … free throws … but this going to go a long way for us.”
Both teams now go back into league play and will wrap up the regular season in two weeks, the Trojans, who also were without injured Clint Sigg, in the Northern and Tigers in the Tri-Valley.
“We both want to go far into the state playoffs and, hopefully, see each other in the state championship,” Kloster said. “Who knows?”
Said Villecco: “People know we’re 4A now.”
Holy Family 11 8 12 9 — 40
Longmont 9 7 12 13 — 41
Holy Family — Helbig 6 2-2 15, J. Golter 0 0-0 0, Comeaux 1 0-2 2, L. Golter 3 6-7 13, Brown 4 0-1 8, Nelson 0 0-0 0, Kreutzer 1 0-1 2, Wallace 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 8-13 40.
Longmont — Sullivan 3 0-3 6, Jessup 4 3-5 11, Speidel 0 0-0 0, O’Grady 4 2-4 10, Mitchell 3 0-2 6, Bachman 2 0-0 4, Rothe 1 2-2 4, Rulon 0 0-0 0, Cordova 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 7-16 41.
3-pt. goals — L. Golter, Helbig. Fouled out — Comeaux.
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or
