Marietta players celebrate after Brayden Jones hit a game-winning, buzzer-beating shot to give the Tigers a 64-63 win over John Glenn Saturday at Sutton Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Brayden Jones has had some big games this season for the Marietta Tigers, including a record-breaking 49-point game in which he also broke the school record with 13 3-pointers.

Heading into the final seconds of Saturday night’s game at Sutton Gymnasium against John Glenn, Jones was not having a good game by any stretch of the imagination as he was limited to just four points, spent a considerable amount of time on the bench in foul trouble and missed a pair of crucial free throws in the closing minute of the game.

The Tiger senior’s fortunes went from down to up in a huge way however as he connected on a jumper from just inside the top of the key as the buzzer sounded to lift Marietta to a thrilling 64-63 win over the Muskies.

Marietta never trailed in the game until a pair of free throws by John Glenn’s C.J. Dolan gave the Muskies a 63-62 lead with 24 seconds to play.

The Tigers pushed the ball up the court and Jones got his first opportunity to play the role of hero, only to see his drive to the bucket come up empty.

Marietta’s Trey Hawkins (5) puts up a shot during Saturday’s game against John Glenn at Sutton Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

The ball was tipped out of bounds off of a John Glenn player, allowing the Tigers to retain possession with seven seconds to play.

After their first attempt to inbound the ball was tipped out of bounds, the Tigers were forced to call a time out on their second attempt to avoid a five-second call, allowing head coach Austin Gardner to draw up the final play.

Trey Hawkins in-bounded the ball to Zaiden Wittekind, who quickly got the ball back into the hands of Hawkins.

Hawkins drove before passing the ball back to Jones who dribbled twice before stepping inside the foul line and splashing a mid-range shot as the buzzer sounded, much to the delight of a very large crowd of Tiger faithful.

“He (Jones) got in foul trouble in the first half and didn’t get to play much, but he stuck with it and he has put a lot of time in the gym,” said Gardner. “B.J. is more than worthy for that kind of moment and he just made an incredible play.”

Marietta’s Seth Britton (2) goes up for a basket during Saturday’s game against John Glenn at Sutton Gym. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Marietta knew what it was up against versus a Muskie team that came into the game with 12 wins in 13 tries and quickly set the tone early on thanks to great team defense and some outstanding shooting in the early going.

The Tigers were leading by five before 3-pointers by Owen Riley and Wittekind and a two-pointer by Hawkins stretched their lead to 13 with less than two minutes to play in the opening quarter.

The Muskies would respond by scoring eight points in a stretch of 20 seconds to pull themselves right back into the game.

A three-point play by Brayden Davis got the mini-run started and Kole Robinson stole the inbound pass and beat the first quarter buzzer with a lay-up to cut the lead to seven.

John Glenn got the ball to begin the second quarter and Dolan knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the Tiger lead to just four.

The Tigers got a huge spark off their bench in the form of junior Braiden Paugher, who drained back-to-back triples on consecutive Tiger possessions to quickly push the lead back to double-digits.

“It was a tough matchup for Braiden (Plaugher) from a mobility stand point but he made shots when he came in,” said Gardner. “He plays extremely hard and is probably our best communicator out on the floor.” The Muskies managed to trim four more points off of the Tiger lead sending them to the break trailing Marietta 38-32.

Both teams shot the ball very well in the first half, each making 14-of-22 field goal attempts in the first two quarters.

John Glenn continued to whittle away at the Tiger lead in the third quarter as they had it down to three with just over two minutes to play before buckets by Hawkins and Jones and a baseline drive and finish by Riley pushed the lead to 53-46 heading to the fourth quarter.

The Tigers continued to build momentum in the final period as Riley came up with a steal and fired the ball ahead to Wittekind who would score and draw a foul.

Wittekind made the freebie and the Tigers looked like they might be able to pull away down the stretch.

That would be anything but the case as the Muskies quickly responded with a 7-2 run to cut the lead to five with five minutes to play.

Wittekind led the Tigers with 17 points and his field goal made it a seven-point game but Bates knocked down another three-pointer for the Muskies with less than four minutes to play.

Both teams went cold for a couple of minutes before Jones was fouled with two minutes to play and came up empty on both free throw attempts.

John Glenn’s Ben Stamm and Tiger Lucas Miller traded buckets to keep the lead at four before Cooper Briggs knocked down a huge triple for John Glenn to cut the lead to a single point.

Hawkins drew a foul on the next Tiger possession, but he too was unable to convert at the charity stripe, giving John Glenn the ball with a chance to take their very first lead of the game.

Dolan drew a foul on the Tigers and made both setting up the last minute heroics for the home team.

“They denied the inbound pass and kind of blew it up…we wanted to get Zaiden (Wittekind) and Trey (Hawkins) in kind of a two-man game with Braiden Plaugher in one corner and Brayden (Jones) in the other,” said Gardner. “I was just proud of our effort and how our guys kept believing even in timeouts that we are going to win this game and we did.”

Joining Wittekind in double figures was Riley, who had 14 points to go along with team-highs in rebounds with seven, assists with four and steals with five.

Riley’s big night followed Friday night’s 24-point, seven-rebound game in a win over Newcomerstown.

Plaugher finished the game with nine points, all coming from behind the arc.

“I love the fight of our guys. Obviously John Glenn is one of the best Division IV teams in the state and they are relentless,” said Gardner, whose team will face another tough match-up Tuesday when Monroe Central pays a visit. “It was a great game and I’m so proud of the way our kids battled.”

John Glenn was led by Stehl Bates with 19 points while Dolan and Davis added 16 apiece.

The Tigers improved to 11-2 on the season with the win, which came on a night where there was a playoff-like atmosphere in Sutton Gym — where they are unbeaten on the season.

“The gym being packed and exciting is just a really cool moment for these kids,” said Gardner, “It’s not always easy to get up but it’s moments like this that you want to be a part of and you have got to want to play in big moments. They will have these memories the rest of their life and obviously we will remember this one.”