LYNDHURST — It was the moment Lyndhurst senior point guard Johnny Chaname had been dreaming about since he started playing basketball in first grade. The clock was winding down. The championship was on the line. And the ball was in his hands.

Chaname’s long-range shot went through the hoop as the final buzzer sounded, lifting Lyndhurst to its first NJSIAA North 2, Group 2 championship since 1981. The Golden Bears players and fans spilled onto the court, celebrating an improbable 60-57 victory.

Lyndhurst will face North 1 champion Ramsey in a Group 2 semifinal on March 10 at Bloomfield High School.

“I just want to thank God for that shot, because I don’t make that shot without him,” said Chaname, an Ecuadorian flag draped over his shoulders. “The last 30 seconds, all I said was, ‘Get the last shot. Whatever happens, happens.'”

What happened was an unexpected comeback championship.

Madison led 23-9 after the first quarter, and 47-28 at halftime. But the third quarter belonged to host Lyndhurst, the second seed.

Sophomore guard Filoteo Mosca opened with a 3-pointer, then three of them. The Golden Bears’ full-court press kicked in, holding the Dodgers off the scoreboard for more than four minutes.

Madison scored only four third-quarter points, all at the foul line.

Gavin Randall led the Dodgers with 16 points, but only two in the second half. They scored just 10 points after the break.

Mosca had 13 points, and classmate Avery Cano, a guard, had a game-high 18. Chaname added 11 of his 15 points in the fourth, including the triumphant buzzer beater.

Lyndhurst coach Perrin Mosca tried crowd surfing on the Bear Den, followed by Chaname and some of the other players.

“That was a surreal game,” said Filoteo Mosca, the coach’s son. “We were talking about making it this far. We knew we could do this. This is one of our goals from the beginning of the season. But now that we’re here, I can’t believe it. I really can’t.”

Championship family

Johnny Chaname and his father had made a list of goals before the season started: 1,000 points, the school scoring record, and make a run in the NJSIAA Tournament.

The younger Chaname has now done all of those. He broke Lyndhurst’s record of 1,341 points in a Feb. 28 quarterfinal. Some Golden Bears fans wore commemorative T-shirts at the sectional final.

But Chaname had been more concerned about a different banner: the one that marked out the boys basketball team’s titles. His father, Johnny Chaname Sr., had won Hudson County and the North 1, Group 3 soccer title in 1997 at Emerson in Union City.

But his son admitted, “The ball wasn’t good at my feet. It was good in my hands.” When Johnny switched to basketball at age 6, his father said, “You want to do this? It’s going to be a long journey.”

But Johnny was willing to put in the work as a youngster in North Bergen and after the family moved to Lyndhurst before he started seventh grade. With a broad smile, the elder Chaname admitted, “What he did today was not in my book.”

“I took my shots,” the younger Chaname said. “I just needed to see one go in. I didn’t care if I missed them. I’m a shooter. I’m going to keep going until it goes in. … That ball came back to me, I saw the hoop, and I just shot it.”