NEW YORK -- There was a time late Thursday evening when a storybook ending for R.J. Barrett and Montverde Academy (Florida) seemed to be slipping out of their vice grip. Two days later, though, and Barrett and his teammates are exactly where he and they expected to be.

On Saturday, Montverde defeated University School (Florida) 76-58 to win the GEICO National boy's basketball championship.

Two days after it looked like their trip to New York City would be a stressful, hard-fought battle to the finish line of what is now an undefeated, championship season, things got much easier after their opening night scare.

SIGN UP to stream FIBA qualification games on DAZN in Canada

In the quarterfinal round, Montverde went up against Lone Peak (Utah) in what was expected to be a runaway victory for Barrett and co. But a second-half surge from the underdogs saw the score tied with under a minute to go. It took a blunder from Lone Peak -- a timeout called inbounding the ball with 18 seconds remaining in regulation of a tie game, with no timeouts remaining -- leading to a two-shot technical and change of possession that handed the game to Montverde.

But in the two games that followed, against opponents pegged as much stiffer challengers, Montverde won each matchup by 18 points, led by Barrett, who scored 22 points in the semifinal, and then 25 Saturday in the championship.

It continued what's been a remarkable year for Barrett, beginning in the summer of 2017 in Egypt, where he led Canada to its first ever gold medal in a FIBA event, when the under-19 team won the international tournament behind Barrett's MVP efforts. He returned to Montverde for what became his senior season when he reclassified into the Class of 2018, was then named the top prospect of his new class, committed to Duke, and led his school to an undefeated, championship season.

Barrett's performance at the GEICO Nationals comes on the heels of playing in the McDonald's All-American game in Atlanta. Barrett competed in that all-star event Wednesday night in Atlanta, flew to New York Thursday morning, and finished what ended up being a stretch of four games in four nights.

"He's a winner. He won with Canada and the gold medal, he's led us to an undefeated season, and he just has a knack for winning," said Montverde coach Kevin Boyle on Thursday, after Barrett scored 15 points in the final five minutes to help Montverde escape and avoid the huge upset. "He's just fabulous."