By Ed Phillipps
The Mount Airy News

DOBSON — In case anyone couldn’t hear over the roar of the crowd — he called it.

Surry Central’s Dave Wilmoth capped a night of huge shots for the Golden Eagles when he banked a 3-pointer as time expired in overtime to give the Golden Eagles a 45-44 win over visiting North Stokes in Northwest 1A/2A action Tuesday night.

He received a hero’s welcome after the shot fell in, as students rushed the court and joined in with the basketball players to hoist Wilmoth onto their shoulders.

Wilmoth said he abided by the old playground rule that says you must call a bank shot before it goes in.

“I always call bank when I’m making my 3’s,” he said. “I always practice it and the whole team laughs at me. So I figured I better call it or they’ll be giving me crap.”

However, there was one person who knew that Wilmoth’s 3-point ability was no joke: Jake Levesque.

After the Vikings had taken a two-point lead with just under three seconds remaining, the Golden Eagles inbounded the ball three-quarters of the way down the court to Levesque, who turned to his left and found Wilmoth on the wing for the winning shot. The play called gave Levesque an option to pass the ball to either wing, but he knew who he wanted to take the final shot before the ball even came to him.

“I had a decision before we even ran it,” he said. “I said, ‘Dave, it’s coming to you.’”

Surry Central coach Ken Eiswald said he had another play in mind, but was persuaded by Tanner Hudson to call the one that won it.

“They execute that play to a ‘T’ and you couldn’t ask for anything more,” Eiswald said.

Ethan Wilmoth paced the Golden Eagles with a game-high 15 points, followed by Levesque with 14 and Dave Wilmoth with 12, eight of which he scored in overtime.

Wilmoth’s big shot came a few hours after Maddie White’s driving score with 2.9 seconds left lifted the girls team to a 44-42 victory.

Brittany Tolbert, who scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds, gave the home team a 42-40 lead with 30 seconds left. After North Stokes’ Jodie Lemons tied it up, White drove down the left wing — where a few hours later Wilmoth would make his winning shot — and scored from close range to lift the Golden Eagles.

White, a righty, said she had no problem going for the win by driving to her left.

“Oh yeah,” the sophomore said, “I have a lot of confidence in my left hand.”

While the big shots were key, both squads’ solid defensive efforts helped keep back-and-forth games tight. The boys clamped down late in the game, forcing North Stokes to burn timeouts on inbound plays. The girls’ feisty display led to turnovers and fast-break buckets.