Everyone in the Gardner-South Wilmington gym went through an emotional roller coaster in the last five seconds of the Panthers’ River Valley Conference Boys Basketball Tournament semifinal against Clifton Central on Tuesday.

And it was the Comets who were the ones riding high at the end of it.

Following Blake Chandler’s tie-breaking free throw with 3.4 seconds remaining, players, coaches and fans alike waited for what felt like several minutes as Cameron Gray’s potential game-winning buzzer beater flirted with every inch of the rim before swirling out and sending the Comets to Friday’s RVC Tournament championship game with a 54-53 win.

“I came up there confident, and confidence is key in that situation,” Chandler, a senior guard who had a game-high 21 points, said. “I’ve been there a hundred times in practice. I believed in myself, that’s mainly it. It’s a big shot, a big win, a great team win.”

In reality, Biros’ would-be winner rolled in and out within the span of a second. But for Comets coach Brandon Schoon, it felt like a decade.

“For half a second there, I thought that was going to go in,” Schoon said. “It rattled around, I turned around, lost about 10 years off my life, and it finally went out.

“A good win, for sure.”

The Comets (18-6) couldn’t have dreamt up a better start, opening the game on a 14-2 run that included a span of 12 straight points to seize early command.

“It was very hype. ...” Comets junior forward Mayson Mitchell said of the start. “It worked out pretty well. We got in their heads, they didn’t score, they didn’t do anything. They couldn’t stop us.”

The Panthers (15-12) didn’t find much success early, trailing 18-5 after a quarter, 29-19 at the half and 47-37 through three. But they trimmed their deficit to single digits for a couple brief stints in the third, indicating they were finding their footing and anything but out of the game as it hit the fourth.

“I told them 10 points is a lot, but a couple stops here or there could change the momentum, and we did that,” Panthers coach Alan Wills said. “We hung in there the third quarter – it was 10 at the half and 10 at the third – so we tied that quarter, let’s go out and get a couple stops. That’s what we did, and we just kept chipping away."

Paced by Leondre Kemp, who had 13 of his team-best 19 points in the second half and added 11 boards for a double-double; Gray, who had 10 of his 15 in the second half; and Stanley Buchanan, who had six of his eight in the second half, the Panthers’ steady efforts allowed them to tie things at 53 on Copper Biros’ 3-pointer with 15 seconds left.

Out of a timeout, Chandler used a screen from Jake Thompson to get an open angle to the basket, where he was fouled on a layup attempt in the closing seconds.

After he missed the front end, a Panthers timeout gave the Comets senior leader plenty of time to think about his next shot.

“Any time you’ve got Blake Chandler at the free-throw line, you’ve got to feel pretty good,” Schoon said. “He’s an all-conference player for a reason.”

The Panthers forewent a timeout and got the ball to Gray, who quickly dashed down the court and let go of a running 3-pointer from the top of the key just ahead of the buzzer, one that couldn’t have been any closer to falling without actually going in.

“It was crazy,” Wills said. “I told them in our timeout before that last free throw, ‘I’m not calling a timeout. If he makes it, we’ve got a little play set up and three seconds. That’s a long time to get the ball down, and whoever’s open, get them the ball.’

“Cam was scoring a lot for us all game, he got a good look, and unfortunately it just rimmed out.”

Clifton Central, which avenged a December loss in Tuesday’s matchup between the two-seed Panthers and three-seed Comets, will look to get even from their other RVC loss when they visit No. 1 seed St. Anne in Friday’s championship game.

The Panthers will host four-seed Momence Friday in the third-place game.

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Clifton Central's Mayson Mitchell, right, drives to the basket as Gardner-South Wilmington's Leondre Kemp defends during the River Valley Conference Tournament semifinals at Gardner-South Wilmington Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Mason Schweizer)