A deadly 3-pointer to give his team a one-point lead with 27 seconds left in overtime. A clutch free throw and a slap in the face to send him to the free throw line with 5.7 seconds to go.

Longmont junior shooting guard Gavin Northouse put together the type of hero story that every athlete dreams of on his home floor on Tuesday night in a 41-39 thriller over Fairview. Before he stepped up to the line to sink the final dagger, the Longmont student section cheered, “We love Gavin!”

His assistant coach, Cade Kloster, kissed him on the side of the head during his postgame interview. All of it was well-deserved for the man who pushed the Trojans over the finish line.

“I shot (the 3), and to be honest, all the feeling in my body kind of went away,” Northouse said. “When I saw it go in, there was energy through my whole body. I knew we had it there because we had all the momentum. And then we got that stop on defense. It was perfect. It was pretty great, especially with all my family watching and everything.”

The Trojans pushed their winning streak to five games to help erase the woes of three season-opening losses. Northouse finished his night with 14 points, and his fellow junior shooting guard, Joey Foot, contributed another 10.

The team is starting to heat up ahead of league play, even as the temperatures outside plummet.

“I would say those first three games, we were not doing good with our defense,” Northouse said. “These past five, we’ve done really well with our defense, which is what’s won us each game. I’m going to say it’s our help defense and our team chemistry and everything. We really put everything together.”

The Knights certainly didn’t make it easy for the home team. After trailing 18-9 at the half and struggling to get their offense going, they came out of the gate shooting well from downtown and securing meaningful rebounds and second-chance points, eventually driving themselves to a 35-35 tie by the end of regulation.

A strong performance from senior shooting guard Spencer Brown down the stretch couldn’t match the fire that Northouse was putting down on the hardwood. He led the Knights with 14 points.

“We were just pushing it in transition because we knew once they got set up, they’re hard to go by, but if we could beat them in transition, we could get whatever we wanted,” Brown said. “We haven’t played a defense like that before. We haven’t taken charges like that. They had good on-ball defense. They were in the gaps. They had just a good whole, five people out there at all times.”

The Knights fell to 6-2, but are continuing their rise under head coach Andre Goldberg, who transformed a 5-17 team during the 2021-22 season back into a winning program. They’ll head next to Legacy on Friday, while Longmont looks to extend its success at Niwot on the same night.