As the game entered its tense final minutes, Ford took over, scoring 15 of Cambridge's final 17 points. The Falcons' All-Scholastic captain, this year's GBL Most Valuable Player, was all over the place, making steals, diving on the floor, shooting, passing and driving straight down the court to get clobbered in the lane by Holy Name players a foot taller than himself.

"It's all part of the game," said Ford, who finished with a game-high 22 points, nine assists, six rebounds, and four steals. "I'm used to it. We've been playing like that my whole life."

Up 69-67 with 31 seconds left, CRLS turned the ball over after a risky inbounds pass, but managed to finally stop Holy Name on the offensive end.

From there, Ford iced the game by sinking four free throws--giving him a perfect 10 for 10 on the night--the last of which came with CRLS holding a 71-69 lead with 4.2 seconds remaining.

As the buzzer sounded, the Cambridge side of the Centrum exploded in jubiliation, while the CRLS team collapsed in a pig pile at center court. Ford, looking a bit like Jim Volvano, darted to one end of the court, his arms raised in victory.

"I'm just so proud and thrilled for these young men," Dottin said last night. "They worked so hard from the beginning of the season to the end...four years of these guys working together, playing together, all paid off last night."

"We set out to improve every single day," he said. "I felt like if we did that, we would give ourselves a great chance of being able to compete for thes state champtionship."