BUFFALO TWP — Ben Beale did not think he'd have time for a rebound. When he did, he was forced to improvise.

With his team down 49-48 in the final seconds of Wednesday's contest against Armstrong, Freeport's senior let a one-handed shot go after driving halfway through the paint.

The attempt hit the backboard and came back toward a host of bodies, Beale among them.

“I didn't have time to pull a rebound down and get another shot off, so I took my chances with my left hand.”

Beale's putback was true, just beating the buzzer as the Yellowjackets beat the visiting River Hawks, 50-49.

“In situations like that, we have our JV team count down the seconds starting at 10 to let our guys on the floor know how much time there is,” said Freeport coach Mike Beale. “I guess we need to practice that, because they were about a full second (too fast).”

Armstrong coach Greg Hutcherson voiced his displeasure to one official for letting the shot count seconds after the game was over.

“When I initially saw the second shot, I didn't think it was in time,” he said, “but my two assistants both said it was good. Four eyes are better than two.

“We had five guys out there and they all just watched the ball instead of going for the rebound,” he added.

Poor free-throw shooting has plagued the River Hawks (6-10) all season and it continued to do so against the Yellowjackets.

In the final 21 seconds, sophomore guard Isaiah Price, who had put Armstrong up 47-46 with a 3-pointer with 54 seconds left in the game, missed four free throws. Freeport's Isiah Bauman rebounded the final miss with 11 seconds left and began to push the ball up the floor. The final sequence called for Jalen Brown to take the final shot, but Beale ended up with the ball in his hands.

For the game, Armstrong was a dismal 6-of-20 from the line, including 3-of-11 in the fourth period.

“It's been trouble for us all year. We're shooting 30 percent this season,” said Hutcherson, who was pleased with the way his team opened the second half after a 20-20 stalemate.

During the first 4:40 of the third quarter, the River Hawks went on an 11-0 run to take a 31-20 lead. In that span, the 'Jackets turned the ball over four times and missed all three of their attempts from the field.

“We've played bad third quarters this year, even in the games we've won,” said Hutcherson. “We wanted to come out and push the pace.

“We were confident coming in here, thought we were the better team. But hats off to Freeport. They kept chipping away.”

That began with Aiden Skradski's 3-pointer and Brown's conventional 3-point play that cut Freeport's deficit to 31-26 with just over three minutes left in the period.”

The 'Jackets eventually took the lead when Beale drained a 3-pointer, making it 43-40, with 2:54 left, but Armstrong had one more spurt in it thanks in large part to Price's outside shooting.

“We moved to a fullcourt man-to-man (defense) during the third quarter,” said Coach Beale. “That's what brought us back.”

Damon Shiring scored a team-high 17 points for Freeport, 13 of them coming in the first half. Brown tallied a career-high 16 points.

Though the win came in non-section play, it was very important for Freeport (9-5) to get back on the right track following last Friday's section loss to Valley. Freeport dives back into section play Friday at Indiana.

“We didn't want to look back to the Valley game, but we also did not want to look ahead to Indiana,” Coach Beale said. “We wanted to focus on the task at hand tonight.”

“This was a huge game for us to get back into the flow of things,” said Ben Beale. “Armstrong's a rival and it's always a battle. We wanted this one.”

ARMSTRONG 49

Hunter Shanty 2 0-0 4, Dawson Porter 7 2-6 16, Jalen Price 2 0-0 4, Isaiah Price 5 4-11 15, Nate Baillie 5 0-3 10, Jacob Herbst 0 0-0 0, Nick Russo 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 6-20 49.

FREEPORT 50

Jalen Brown 7 1-1 16, Aiden Skradski 2 0-0 6, Damon Shiring 7 2-2 17, Ben Beale 4 0-0 11. Totals: 20 3-3 50.

Armstrong 10 10 15 14 — 49

Freeport6 14 10 20 — 50

3-point goals: Armstrong 1 (I. Price); Freeport 7 (Beale 3, A. Skradski 2, Shiring, Brown).

Friday: Freeport at Indiana