Jackson Mason wanted the ball.

He wanted to win the game for Princeton.

And he did exactly that, hitting a step-back jumper from the left wing at the buzzer for a 67-65 overtime Three Rivers East victory over the rival Hall Friday at Prouty Gym.

“I told my teammates, ‘Guys, give me the ball. I’m going to go score,’ ” he said. “I went 1-on-1 there at the end and hit a step-back.”

“I had full faith in him hitting it,” senior teammate Gavin Lanham said.

Mason was mobbed by his happy teammates, and the emotion hit him. He said he thought about his father, Pat, who passed away a year ago during Jackson’s junior season.

“We’ve been waiting for one of these moments, and it couldn’t happen to a better kid,“ Tigers coach Jason Smith said. ”He needed that shot of confidence, and maybe that will propel us in the postseason. Who knows?”

“Say what you want, 5-23, whatever we are. We don’t quit. Hall’s a good, solid team. We know they’re missing a guy (sophomore center Chace Sterling). Coach [Mike Filippini] does a good job. Whoever’s on the floor, it’s always going to be a battle.

“We had that resiliency tonight not to give up on each other and got a two-point win out of it somehow, someway. I don’t know.”

It was Mason who also gave the Tigers a chance at overtime. Freshman teammate Julian Mucha also nailed a key 3-pointer with 31.7 left to draw the Tigers within 59-56.

Then Mason hit a step-back 3-pointer of his own off a shot fake with 12.6 seconds left in regulation and made the second of two free throws with 6.6 left to tie the game at 60 and send it to OT.

Greyson Bickett drew first blood in overtime for the Red Devils, hitting a floater over Princeton’s Mucha. Mason hit two free throws to tie it with 1:27 remaining, and Ryan Jagers made 1 of 2 from the line for a 63-62 Tigers lead with 57 seconds left.

Mason returned to the line with 39.0 left. He made the first attempt and missed the second, only to hustle after the long rebound. He then rolled in another free throw to put the Tigers up 65-62.

“Wasn’t just his offense. His defense was phenomenal, too,” Smith said of Mason.

Hall’s Noah Plym made one free throw and also swished his second only to be called for a violation for stepping over the line. Bickett stripped the Tigers’ inbounds pass into the hands of Hall teammate Braden Curran, who was fouled. He made two free throws to tie the game at 65 with 14.8 left to play.

Then Mason made sure he sent everyone in blue home happy with his game-winner.

“It was the last home game. I wanted to go out in a good way,“ Mason said. ”Since this was our last game, we all locked in and went back to the fundamentals, got the defensive stops when it we needed it."

Filippini said it was a tough one to lose.

“We didn’t make enough plays at the end of the game to win, and Princeton did. So you tip your cap to Princeton,” he said. “We battled back from a terrible start, but just couldn’t get it done tonight.”

The Tigers roared out of the gate, taking a 14-4 lead on a 3-pointer by Lanham at the 3:36 mark. Jack Oester hit a trey, and Owen Hartman scored on a putback for a 19-9 lead.

Lanham nailed two more 3s in the second quarter, and Oester scored on a steal and layup to send the Tigers to a 30-24 halftime lead.

Oester scored 11 points and Lanham 10 for Princeton before both fouled out. Ryan Jagers had 10 points, while Hartman added eight points, seven in the first quarter.

Plym led Hall with 15 points. Bickett added 13, making 6 of 6 pivotal free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter.

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Princeton's Jackson Mason lets go of a jump shot over Hall's Noah Plym on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026 at Princeton High School. (Scott Anderson)