PIAA Class 6A Boys Basketball: Upper Darby’s wild finish puts Yassir Joyner, Royals into second round

Yassir Joyner did not hesitate.

The 6-3 senior guard saw the ball bounce right to him with time dwindling down in the second overtime Saturday, with Upper Darby deadlocked with Bethlehem Liberty in the opening round of the PIAA Class 6A playoffs.

Joyner grabbed the ball and put a soft shot off the glass with his left hand. The ball bounced on the rim a few times before finally falling through the hoop just before the horn went off to give the Royals a stunning 66-64 victory over the District 11 runnerup Hurricanes.

“I just took advantage of it,” Joyner said by phone. “I saw an opening; nobody was there, so I laid it up.”

Joyner’s bucket capped a wild back-and-forth battle between the Royals and Hurricanes and sends Upper Darby (19-8), the sixth seed out of District 1, into Wednesday’s second round against District 3 champion Reading at a site and time to be determined. The Red Knights (28-1) rolled over Haverford, 74-43.

Nadir Myers led the Royals with 20 points. Joyner chipped in with 16 points and Niymire Brown added 15 before fouling out.

“It was crazy,” Joyner said.

The Royals jumped out to a 12-11 lead after one quarter and held Liberty to one field goal in the second period to expand their advantage to 29-14. Upper Darby was up, 44-31, after three periods and appeared to be in firm control of the contest but the Hurricanes were not about to go quietly on their home court.

Liberty (16-11) fought back and outscored Upper Darby, 25-12, in the final period. The Hurricanes tied the game at 56 when Dywane Chess hit a free throw with 9.3 seconds left in regulation. The Royals had a last-second heave from midcourt to win it but the shot was off the mark.

Upper Darby took a 58-56 lead in the first extra session but once again the Hurricanes were able to tie it on a pair of free throws by Ziego Goodman. Khysir Slaughter had a good look at a 3-pointer from the top of the key to win it but his shot kicked off the back of the rim to send the game into double overtime.

Trailing, 61-58,  Niari Hodges buried a 3-pointer to tie it. Nadir Myers then hit a 3-pointer to put the Royals up, 64-61. Once again, though, Liberty showed its resolve. Nate Rivera hit a 3-pointer from the right corner with 47 seconds left in the second overtime to tie the game once again and set the stage for the final, crazy sequence.

Joyner dribbled to his left and tried to feed a pass to Slaughter with time winding down but a Liberty player got his hand on the ball and it bounced into the hands of Goodman. Slaughter tipped the ball away as Goodman tried to feed a pass to Chess under the basket.

The ball bounced right to Joyner, who calmly grabbed the loose ball and banked home the winning layup to keep the Royals alive in the tournament.

“It was a wild sequence,” Joyner said. “I had the ball, Khysir had it, the guy took it and lost it and Khysir tipped it back to me. I just put it up and saw it go in.”

The shot touched off a wild celebration as the Royals poured off the bench and swarmed Joyner on the baseline.

“I was feeling the energy,” Joyner said. “I’ve been in some crazy games but never one in double overtime like that. It was wild.”