By By Matthew Nascone
The Northview boy's basketball team stole a page from Harry Houdini's magic book Tuesday.
The Chiefs traveled to Brewton for the T.R. Miller Tournament and defeated St. Paul Episcopal out of Mobile 40-39 in the first round.
"We went up there and escaped with a win," NHS head coach Shane Reid said. "We didn't lead all game, but we came out on top."
Nakita Myles stole the ball from a St. Paul player and knocked down a shot to tie the game with one minute to go in the game. Myles later won the game for the Chiefs at the charity stripe.
"We drew up a play for Nakita," Reid said. "He missed the shot and he was sent to the line and he did the rest from there.
With two seconds left in the game Myles was fouled and headed to the free throw line. He missed the first shot, but nailed the second to put the Chiefs up by one.
The knife barely missed the heart of the Chiefs on the next play.
"They threw the ball the length of the court perfectly to their guy in between two of ours and the guy faked both our guys out, but he missed the open shot inside the box," Reid said.
The Chiefs' big man, Cedric McKinley, was in foul trouble all game and fouled out in the fourth quarter on a call Reid could only explain as weird.
"Courtney Whatley committed a foul, but one of the referees signaled the foul on McKinley and he was told to sit down," Reid said. "The bad part was that one of them signaled the foul on Courtney and the other signaled it on Cedric, but they never conversed and we lost Cedric."
Reid said the Jay Tournament earlier this month showed him a lot about his team.
"I think playing without Courtney and Cedric in the Jay Tournament helped these guys realize they can play without them and when Cedric fouled out they were not worried," Reid said.
The second half was a lot better for the Chiefs, Reid said.
"Our guys played harder in the second half and we played phenomenal defense in the fourth quarter," he said. "We only allowed four points in the quarter."
Reid had only good things to say about the game.
"St. Paul was a good fundamental team," Reid said. "Every time we would get close, they would hit a three-pointer to widen their lead."
With the win the Chiefs move to the second round of the 16-team tournament. They will play the winner of the Flomaton-Culleka, Tenn. game at 5 p.m. tonight.
The tournament is split into two divisions, a small school division and a large school division. Reid said each team is guaranteed three games and if NHS wins tonight they will play for the small school championship tomorrow at 8 p.m. If they lose they will play at 3 p.m.
The tournament championship game will be held Friday at 8 p.m.
"I hope we can still be playing Friday," Reid said. "But we have to beat some good teams to get there."