Ryan Cameron has been locked in since the Newburgh Free Academy boys’ basketball team’s season ended with a loss to North Rockland in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association playoffs.

He was locked in for the biggest moment of the young season, when he broke a tie game with a 3-point basket twice, including in the game’s last 30 seconds as his shot from the left wing, lifted the Newburgh Free Academy boys’ basketball team to a 77-74 win over the Kingston Tigers on December 12 at Newburgh Free Academy Main.

“I just had to stay shot-ready,” Cameron said. “I put so much work in in the offseason with my teammates just to be ready for when the opportunity comes. We were up by double digits and obviously shrunk at the end, but we still knew we had to do it and we stayed ready. Opportunity was mine, and I took it. I know anybody else on my team would do the same.”

The last several years in basketball had been a struggle for Cameron, who was cut from the JV team in John Jay-East Fishkill as a freshman and then from the varsity as a sophomore.

He transferred to Newburgh as a junior and played a mostly bench role for the Goldbacks. Now, a senior, he already came up in the biggest moment of the young season.

He led the Goldbacks with a team-high of 17 points.

“Moments like this shows we’ve been in a gym countless hours throughout the whole summer, just shooting hundreds and hundreds of shots,” Newburgh coach Jason McAllister said. “I’m just glad that with him not being able to play last year, the game was a little fast for him, but he was able to put in the hard work to use in a game that was very meaningful for us.”

Cameron wasn’t the only one who put everything together for the Goldbacks against Kingston, as while he was the top scorer, four Goldbacks reached double figures. James Thorpe scored 16 points and Elnathan Johnson added 14. Alejandro Florentino scored 13 points.

“It’s important to have a lot of players who can contribute like that,” Johnson said. “Last year, we banked a lot on Deondre (Johnson), we have more depth, we have more guards and more people who can handle the ball, and more people with actual basketball IQ. It just works.”

Derek Constance led the Tigers with a game-high 26 points and Ke’Montae Thawe added 21. Elijah Abrams scored 11.

“It’s anybody’s game,” McAllister said. “We could have very well lost this game. Kingston’s a really good team. Monroe has a lot of people returning. Pine Bush has an entirely new team and they got way more athletic. They have some size also. All five teams are good, and it could be anybody’s night, and I’m just thankful tonight was our night.”