Wilson (left) holds the "Dedication Game" ball with Thompson from where he fired the game-winning shot. He wrote the name of his late friend, Josh Rominger, in the middle of the ball underneath the NCAA logo.

With no timeouts, two ticks on the clock and down 82-81 to Mount Airy, Bishop McGuinness point guard Spencer Wilson looked searchingly at this coach.

“He asked me, ‘What do you want me to do?’ and I said, ‘Get the ball and get the best shot you can get,’’ ” recalls Triad Baptist member Josh Thompson, who has coached the Villains since 2002.

The Mount Airy shooter’s intentional miss bounded to center Will Gardner who quickly flipped the rebound to Wilson. The junior guard took a few quick steps, turned, and fired.

Earlier, Wilson had hit his only three-pointer of the game with nearly the same amount of time left to force overtime.

The shot 10 feet from behind the half court line arced toward the goal, bounded off the backboard and into the net as the buzzer sounded and the bleachers emptied.

“The first thing I thought when we got back to the locker room, and after all the pandemonium had calmed down, was that there was no way this would have happened without the ‘Dedication Game,’ ” Wilson said.

Names on a ball

Thompson got the idea from a coaching blog — asking each player to dedicate the game to someone, send letters to the people they selected, and write the person’s name on a basketball with a gold Sharpie.

In the locker room the day before the game, players read their tributes. Wilson had picked Josh Rominger, a Davie County High School athlete he’d met earlier during two separate bouts with cancer at Wake Forest Baptist Health. Rominger died in April 2013.

Wilson visits with Rominger (left) during treatment.

“His joy illuminated the room, and it was always apparent to me that he was special,” Wilson wrote Josh’s mom. “Just wanted to let you know the impact your son has on my life still to this day. I will never forget him. Play for Josh.”

“I read it and cried,” Denna Rominger said. “They just had that bond. Nobody else knew how Josh felt except for Spencer.”

Thompson marveled at all the stories and emotions that tumbled from the tributes. One honored an injured teammate who couldn’t suit up. Another told of an uncle who couldn’t see his games so he listened to them online.

During each timeout against Mount Airy, the “Dedication Game” ball came out, and each player touched the name of their honoree.

Faith lesson for millions

Thompson had no idea the Jan. 17, 2014 game and shot he set in motion would become a faith lessons for millions.

The CBS Evening News and CBS’s On the Road first took the story to a national audience. Then the shot made the SportsCenter highlights and ESPN came calling.

“They contacted Spencer in early February on Twitter after seeing the piece on CBS,” Thompson said.

The network interviewed Wilson, Thompson and the team and shot footage in April. They returned for more in June.

On Dec. 25, the network broadcast the E:60 story on SportsCenter. The piece will air again this spring. It’s title? “Dedication Game.” Watch ESPN's 47-second promotional video.

“My faith is the primary reason that I coach,” said Thompson, who joined Triad with his wife, Marsha, in 2008, and teaches physical education at Bolton Elementary School in Winston-Salem.

“God has allowed me to use my passion for basketball to share Christ,” he said. “It’s so clear to me that God’s hand has been on the ‘Dedication Game’ since day one and on everything that has come after it.”

Wilson said it’s equally clear to him that being coached by Thompson is no coincidence, either.

“He’s become one of my biggest role models and someone who can keep me accountable with my faith in God and someone who can not only coach me on the floor but in life,” he said.

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned from Coach Thompson is how to deal with adversity. Whether it’s a bad game, or something else that happens in my life, he’s always encouraging me to keep my head up and keep pushing through.”

First diagnosed with cancer at age 13, Wilson credits the return of the disease two years later and his subsequent recovery with building a faith that can endure.

“I never thought anything like that could ever happen to me—being in seventh and eighth grade and in the hospital every day and getting chemotherapy pumped through my body,” he said.

“You just got to trust that God has a plan for your life. Whether it be in Josh’s case to be taken off this earth or, like me, to be able to run the court and end up hitting that shot and continue Josh’s legacy, just trust God’s plan.”