TIM WEIGHT/For the Express Central Mountain junior Darius Shade shoots a layup during the team's 63-55 win over Jersey Shore on Wednesday at Thomas Fieldhouse.

Following his 17-point, three-trey outing against St. John Neumann last Thursday, Central Mountain sharpshooter Darius Shade went through a bit of a cold spell. Though he was building off a career performance and the opportunities were there, he’d go scoreless against Shamokin and miss his first four threes against Jersey Shore, going into the fourth quarter with just two points.

The shots just weren’t falling, but his confidence never wavered. Most times, one make is all it takes to open the flood gates.

When Shore’s Landon Lathan hit a three to cut Central Mountain’s lead down to four with just over four minutes to go in regulation, point guard Noah Wells quickly took the ball down court, driving left and drawing an extra defender in the process. That freed Shade up in the corner and Wells kicked it out to him, trusting the junior with a crucial shot.

With plenty of time to square up and set his feet, it was his best chance to end the drought up to that point. His high-arching three seemed to hang in the air for a second before dropping straight through the net for a swish, with an uproar from his bench and student section just a few yards away quickly following.

The Bulldogs would respond, cutting the deficit back down to five. But auto-aim was essentially activated at that point.

On the ensuing possession, Shade would hit another corner three on a driving assist from Wells. Then, on their next offensive possession that made it past halfcourt, he’d find an open shot between the top of the arc and left corner, drilling his third three in less than two minutes of game time. The shot upped the team’s lead to 56-47 with 2:15 to go, its biggest lead since the start of the second half.

“My team just kept telling me to keep shooting. I just did my thing,” said Shade. “I was hoping they’d knock down and they went down.”

“He has a lot of confidence, and we have a lot of confidence in him. And I say ‘we’ as everybody. Guys were picking him up and continuing to look for him and finally, we got some driving kick, and he got his feet set,” said Central Mountain head coach Tyler Bardo. “Once he gets one to go, he can really rip.”

On top of giving the Wildcats a strong cushion in crunch time, the momentum boost was enough for them to maintain it, even amidst a chaotic finish. With four fouls, Hunter Hoy charged the hoop, getting fouled on a layup. The shot went in, and he’d go on to complete the three-point play, sealing the game with under a minute to go.

“He finally got something to fall, which was huge for us. That’s what he does; he hits threes and opens up the gap,” said Hoy on Shade. “In the whole fourth quarter, we were just attacking and doing what we could to win the game, and that’s what we ended up doing.”

His confidence did get the better of him on the following possession, as he squared up for a shot that was a good ten feet behind the arc, an ambitious heat check to see the least. That shot briefly appeared to be on target before falling a few inches short of the rim.

Though Bardo was critical of the decision, he was quick to follow it up by giving him credit for playing a vital role in extending the team’s lead.

“With that, it’s just understanding situational basketball at that point. That’s something that we’ll look at on film and talk about. It’s something we work on all the time,” said Bardo. “This atmosphere (at Thomas Fieldhouse), the energy that we gained, all that stuff I think kind of went into that. I’m not going to knock him too hard for that.”

It meant a lot to him to help the team pull off a big win, as the Wildcats not only took down their rival in Jersey Shore but also won on a special night in Lock Haven University’s home gym.

“It’s an honor to play here and we needed this one really badly to keep going,” said Shade. “We have a lot more coming up and if we keep playing as a team, we should be doing well.”

Through ten games, Shade has been a force off the bench, upping his average to eight points per game and attributing his sixth multi-three outing in the win. He’s a player that the team trusts considerably and expects to continue making an impact.