Latwan Wesley had made a single basket all night, and hadn’t scored since the opening possession of the third quarter.

It wasn’t that Lincoln High School's senior point man had been cold -- he’d only missed a handful of shots all night. Adrian had just slowed the game to a snail’s pace. So the Railsplitters suddenly found themselves in a 38-38 ballgame with less than 30 seconds to play for a Class A district title.

Wesley, he of three points on the night, calmly dribbled as the clock continued to wind down. Coach Mike Foley extended his arm as if to say, “Not yet. It’s not time yet.”

And then it was. Wesley drove to his right, then spun left, elevating just as he crossed the free-throw line. His shoulders were square. The stroke was true. The back-rim gave him a shooters roll, and the stands at Saline High School fell silent before erupting.

Adrian had 4.2 seconds to respond, but Andrew Dillon made sure there would be no Evan Turner-esque ending for the Maples, stealing the inbound pass and allowing Lincoln to kill the clock in the 40-38 win.

“There was no doubt in my mind who was getting the ball,” Foley said. “Latwan’s been with me since he was a sophomore. I expect senior leadership out of him. It was a great shot. I’m not surprised he made the shot.”

After the final buzzer sounded, the Lincoln (15-8) players joined their traveling student section in the stands, then their classmates joined them on the court.

More coverage: This game on MLive.com | Boxscore | District Bracket

“It’s a great moment not only for our team, for our community for our school district. I thought I was at school tonight I saw so many teachers and administrators here, I thought it was maybe 17th hour,” Foley said. “Not a lot of programs go back-to-back district champs.”

Though Lincoln, which hadn’t scored less than 60 points in a month, never trailed in the game, Adrian’s (11-11) methodical approach kept the Railsplitters from stretching the floor, or the lead, and an NBA-range 3-pointer from Ryan Dempsey tied the game with 43 seconds remaining.

“We probably average in the mid-50’s at best. (Lincoln) put 73 on us 10 days ago. They’ve been putting 80 on people. We can’t play them that way,” said Adrian coach Marc Comstock. “I thought our defense was outstanding against a very good offensive team. We just needed to be a little more efficient offensively.”

“Adrian does a good job of slowing the game down, we tried everything in our powers to speed the game up and we were unsuccessful,” Foley said.

Lincoln’s offense was a model of efficiency early, hitting its first four shots from the field. Wesley owned the first miss, but picked up his own offensive rebound and scored on a putback as Lincoln jumped to an early 10-2 lead.

Brooks Sutherland and Robert Schwartz kept Adrian alive in the second quarter, scoring all 13 of their points, including a personal 7-0 run by Sutherland midway through the quarter. Lincoln led 23-22 at the break.

“(Sutherland) almost single-handedly won a district title for his team. I have so much respect for that kid,” Foley said. “We had to switch our defense because of one player. He did an excellent job tonight.”

Adrian stretched every possession in the third and it appeared to be frustrating Lincoln’s defenders. Mahamoudou Kaba verbally challenged the Adrian guards to come at him.

Kaba made good on the trash talk at the end of third as he and KeAndre Taylor broke up an inlet pass, then found Dillon in transition. Dillon was looking to dunk but had to rush to get a layup off at the buzzer.

“I was (thinking dunk) until I realized how much time I had, then I was like just get the points,” Dillon said.

Lincoln, winners of eight straight, advances to play Inkster (16-4), which upset top-ranked Romulus 82-73 Friday.

“They probably won’t sleep tonight, I probably won’t sleep tonight, but our mission starts again Monday and we have to be prepared,” Foley said.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by e-mail at petercunningham@annarbor.com, or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.