Hustling home what proved to be the game-clinching basket Saturday night, nobody could fault North Fork’s Zaid Vasquez for taking a teammate’s inbounds pass end-to-end as though he’d stolen something.

After all, Telluride post Grayson Berry’s disqualifying fifth personal foul seconds earlier effectively allowed the visitors to steal a 61-58 overtime victory from a defeat appearing more likely every second the big fella was on the court.

Denied a 2-0 start to the 2022-23 season, THS’ players were still, for the most part, decidedly positive about their thrilling come-from-behind effort — which fell three points short, 61 to 58 — inside a raucous MinerDome that had witnessed the boys hold off Crested Butte, 38-35, not 24 hours before.

“Super impressive,” head coach Yana Pollard said. “It speaks to how much they’ve been working in the gym in the preseason; they’re ready to go and want to play more. I mean, they would want a game tomorrow night.”

“This game we were down, like, 17, and we came back,” said Berry, whose off-balance 16-foot jumper with about five seconds left in regulation finally tied the non-league test at 49-49 and forced overtime. “That just shows the adversity (we faced) and I’m really proud of how the team played.”

Trailing Hotchkiss-based NFHS 31-14 at halftime, after North Fork’s Dylan Prescott coldly canned a three-pointer — already his fourth during a scorching first half — over THS standout Townes Merritt with 0:02 left in the second quarter, Telluride outscored the like-named Miners 21 to 11 in the third, with Berry pumping in a poisonous 11 points and Merritt six.

Having closed to 42-35 entering the fourth quarter, THS approached as close as 44-42 via a Berry triple. NFHS, however, soon rebuilt their lead to 49-44, thanks to a clutch three-ball by reserve Nick Poutre. Minus Merritt, sidelined by an apparent ankle roll, Telluride nevertheless stayed in the game by making seven of 13 free-throw attempts during the quarter (North Fork, meanwhile, was not awarded even one charity toss), including Berry’s singular make with 25.7 ticks left — bringing the Miners back to 49-47, not long before his dramatic equalizer necessitated four bonus minutes on the game clock.

“At halftime, I knew I had three fouls … wasn’t really playing that well, and I just knew I needed to step up,” said Berry, who’d picked up his third personal with 7:02 left in the second quarter. “And that’s what I did. Not glad that Townes got hurt, but we had to play through it.”

Berry would hit one of two FTs with 3:49 left in the extra stanza, giving Telluride a 50-49 lead, but then committed his fourth personal foul trying in vain to prevent Prescott (23 points) from converting a conventional three-point play. North Fork then got two FTs from Moss Inman, but Berry responded with a crowd-rocking corner three, and senior Tony Ordonez soon followed with a go-ahead floater through the lane.

Inman then fouled out, but Poutre (9 points) regained the guests a two-point pad with another well-timed trey. And with 1:42 remaining, Berry’s night unfortunately ended early, and Vasquez (12 points) couldn’t capitalize quickly enough, though Ordonez ultimately ended the game driving baseline for a buzzer-beating layup.

“That was a high-level game right there; it was about personnel, about stopping our weak points, and taking advantage of our big players,” Pollard said. “The basketball IQ was top-notch, especially to come back from that deficit. They did work. There’s one thing you can’t coach, and that’s fight. That’s what these guys have in them.”

“The whole team had to step up — the energy had to come up — and that’s what happened,” said Berry, who totaled a game-best 26 points after scoring just four against Crested Butte. “We’d like the win, but I’m impressed with the performance we had; it was pretty complete.”

Ending up 13-of-28 from the foul line, Telluride got 14 points from Ordonez (who’d dropped 13 on CB before fouling out) in support of Berry, plus 13 from Merritt (4 versus CB). Coming off the bench, Cash Livermore chipped in two points after booking ten against the Titans — who were to next host, coincidentally, North Fork Tuesday night.

THS, meanwhile, will next compete on Friday and Saturday in Grand Junction at Caprock Academy’s tournament.

WORKING OVERTIME: With only 8.7 ticks left in regulation, Sam Herman hit one of two free throws to force OT against North Fork in the junior-varsity contest, then sank three of four during the supplemental session’s first 1:29 to put THS up 37-34, but NFHS managed to win 40-37 — after the Telluride JV had defeated Crested Butte in OT, 43-39, the previous evening.