What’s that old cliche? “Third time’s the charm?” It sure was for Providence Catholic Saturday night.

Down two at Marquette with under 10 seconds to go, red-hot Jayde Wyett attempted a 3-pointer to give the Celtics the win in regulation. The ball bounced off the rim and into the waiting hands of his teammate Curtis Stubbs. Stubbs attempted to score a putback with four seconds left, but the shot rung out again and back into Stubbs’ hands with two ticks left.

The cliche held true. Stubbs’ shot went in and tied things up at the buzzer for the Celtics to force overtime. Providence did what it was supposed to in the extra four minutes, taking a 68-65 victory over the Crusaders. The win is Providence’s third in a row.

Stubbs, a junior and standout football player, hadn’t made a shot all night before the basket and didn’t score a point afterward. But the one basket he made was the biggest of the night. Trendel expressed pride in Stubbs, a defense-first player who stepped up when called upon on the night.

“I told him in the huddle earlier we were going to need him to make a basket here down the stretch,” coach Tim Trendel said. “He’s a great example of someone being a star in his role. He came off the football field...and said ‘my role is to rebound and defend. He’s great at that but he was great putting it back there just now. He’s just a great kid.”

As for Stubbs’ mindset in the moment, it was really quite simple.

“I just had to have confidence and put the ball in the basket,” Stubbs said. “We’ve had to keep our heads up and keep going (lately) and that’s what we’ve got to do.”

The Celtics (6-12) have doubled their win total the past three contests after a rough start to the year. Trendel credited his underclassmen-heavy roster, whom he said “isn’t young any more.

“We’re growing as a team,” Trendel said. “We start two sophomores and a couple of juniors, but we’ve made some progression as the year’s gone on. ...They’ve bought into the culture. They could’ve given up a month ago, but they’ve played some great basketball here of late.”

The Celtics primarily relied on Wyett, who finished with 21 points, but it was a team effort. Cade Styrsky (15 points), Reece Kras (13) and Luke Rost (11) all had outstanding nights.

Credit the Class 1A Crusaders (11-5) who battled throughout and led at the end of the first quarter as well as at halftime. Alec Novotney hit a layup with 90 seconds to go to give them a 57-54 edge and hit a free throw with 19.6 to go to make it 58-56 as well. The Celtics needed Stubbs’ magic to force the extra period.

Even when Providence Catholic went up by six in OT Marquette never gave up. It got it back within three and when the Celtics returned it to six, Lucas Craig nailed a triple to pull things back within three. Unfortunately, that was with just 0.4 seconds left on the clock.

Still, Marquette played with confidence throughout. Griffin Dobberstein finished with 21 points while Novotney had 17, showing that the 1A schools could hang with the big boys.

“I’m proud of ‘em,” coach Todd Hopkins said. “I thought they battled the entire game. Give Providence credit for making the play to get to overtime. I thought we guarded well, just didn’t close out on the rebound.

“All this does is make us better. We know we can compete with teams in our area that are our size so we appreciate them playing us. No disappointment. Our guys showed a lot of heart and guts, just came up short.”