Midland Park dribbled the ball past half court at Bogota High School with the score tied 49-49 and the clock ticking under 25 seconds.

Midland Park called timeout.

In Bogota’s huddle, long-time coach Jay Mahoney gave his squad the run down. Midland Park was going to hold for a last second shot – MP coach Adam Sidrow drawing up the play in his own huddle – Mahoney needed his squad to stop that and a half court trap was how they were going to do that.

The shift in defense caused chaos on the floor as soon as Midland Park inbounded. Then the ball was knocked away from an attacking player and Yorlin Motolio hopped on the loss ball. From the floor, the junior guard passed to Ashanti Caviness, who took the ball the length and hit a contested layup with four seconds left to give Bogota a 51-49 lead.

Midland Park had a chance to win the game, but a long buzzer-beater didn’t go as Bogota pulled out the wild home victory.

“When I saw the video, I was absolutely amazed by the play that Yorlin made,” Mahoney said. “Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I was sending messages and videos to like 50 people. In 41 years this was one of our craziest moments.”

The victory pushed a young Bogota squad to 6-1 on the year and 3-0 against NJIC Patriot Divison foes heading into Wednesday’s showdown with defending champion Saddle River (4-2).

Bogota graduated four key contributors from last year’s 19-8, sectional semifinalist squad. Mahoney is extremely happy with the fast start and rapid development of his players.

“I’m completely ecstatic with the way our kids are playing,” the 674-game winner said. “To be 6-1 is just terrific. We graduated a lot and these kids have stepped up. We knew that every game was going to be nip-and-tuck. That’s just the way it’s going to be.”

Junior guard Taj Collins has spearheaded Bogota’s success and leads the team with 15 points per game – 11 in Monday’s win. Caviness (13 ppg), Evan Meberg (13.9 ppg) and Motolio (8.1 ppg) have rounding things out, while Bryan Delacruz and Vincent Ducut have made impacts as well.

Richard Greco covers boys basketball for NJ.com and may be reached at rgreco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Richard_V_Greco. Find NJ.com on Facebook.