HIGHGATE — Gabriel Unwin sank a pair of free throws after time had expired, completing a wild fourth quarter comeback, giving the Missisquoi Valley Union Thunderbirds a 46-45 VPA playdown round win over the Lyndon Institute Vikings on Tuesday night inside the MVU Gym.

Unwin’s shot ended a back and forth battle. After MVU jumped out to a 10-7 lead after the first quarter, LI took control in the second eight minutes, outscoring the T-Birds 15-10 to take a slim 22-20 lead into the break. The visitors built that lead to four at 34-30 at the end of three, and then scored the first five points of the fourth to go up nine at 39-30. But MVU took over from there, outscoring LI 16-6 the rest of the way.

An Ethan Creller three pointer gave MVU their first lead of the second half in the final minute. Lyndon’s Sage Gosselin responded going to the basket for a layup to put the Vikings up one with 4.9 seconds remaining. After a time out, Missisquoi inbounded and pushed it up to Unwin, whose turnaround shot from the foul line came up short as the clock expired. But LI was called for a foul and Unwin calmly sank both shots to give MVU the win.

Unwin led all scorers with 20 points, including a perfect 11 for 11 from the foul line. Mathew Curtis added 14 for the T-Birds.

Gosselin led LI with 16 and James Sanborn added 13.

The win sends Missisquoi into the quarterfinals at 13-8.Lyndon ends their season 11-10.