The Elam Ending came to high school hoops for a night with Phelps vs. Westtown. The ending was ‘a blast.’

History was made on Saturday night in Malvern.

In a PA Cup matchup between Phelps School and Westtown School, a clash between Boston College-bound Chas Kelley (Phelps) and Duke signee Dereck Lively II (Westtown), there was a unique finish.

Instead of the final buzzer sounding and the leading team prevailing, the game featured what’s known as the “Elam Ending,” and was one of the first regulation high school basketball games to utilize the format. Westtown coach Seth Berger and Phelps coach John Harmatuk mutually agreed to the idea, in the event that they would face each other, when organizing the tournament.

Named after its creator, Nick Elam, the Elam Ending is an alternative finish to basketball games that has four major components:

1. After the first dead ball in the game’s final four minutes, the game clock is turned off, and the target score is determined by adding eight points to the leading team’s score. (For example, if the 76ers were beating the Knicks 90-84 with four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, after the next dead ball, the target score for both teams would then be 98 points.)

2. The first team to the target score wins.

3. If a team is fouled in the bonus, the team will get one free throw and retain possession of the ball. Shooting fouls remain the same — two shots and then the other team gets the ball.

4. The game must end on a made basket (or free throw).

Various leagues have utilized different variations of the ending. This upcoming weekend, the NBA All-Star Game will use the Elam Ending for the third straight year, albeit a slightly adjusted version. Since 2017, The Basketball Tournament, a summer, single-elimination tournament that showcases former professional and college basketball players, also uses the ending.

“It was always disheartening to me that the last part of our game, where the quality and style of play deteriorates, is such a different, inferior brand of basketball,” said Elam, a educational leadership professor at Ball State who came up with the idea in 2007. “I wonder what would happen if you took out the clock at the end of a basketball game and played to a target score.”

After devising the concept, the next hurdle for Elam was convincing others that the idea had merit.

“Reaching out to people in the basketball world, to get somebody to implement the idea or even just generate a discussion about the idea,” Elam said. “I mean, through those 10 years [2007-17] and beyond, I can honestly say that this is the concept that I have thought of at least some part of every day since then.”

This past weekend at the Phelps Athletic Center, Elam’s theory was put into practice.

At the first dead ball with under four minutes left to play, the score was 76-66, Westtown. The game clock (but not the 30-second shot clock) was turned off. The target score was set at 84.

Confusion set in. The three referees gathered around the scorer’s table for a meeting. The players from both teams, standing on the court, were looking around, wondering what to do. After the slight pause in the action, the game resumed, and momentarily, the chaos extinguished.

Despite being down eight points when the clock was turned off, Phelps made it a close finish, cutting the deficit to 78-76.

The ending also included a one shot and the ball opportunity — a potential four-point swing — for Phelps with the score, 80-76, but Kelley missed the front-end free throw. Phelps’ Malcolm Wisby-Jefferson missed a three-pointer on the ensuing possession.

A few possessions later, Westtown’s Jameel Brown, a Penn State signee, knocked down a three-pointer with his team leading 81-76. Ballgame.

“What we were planning on doing [in the final four minutes] was coming down and executing our half-court offense,” Berger said. “Then we realized that was not going to work. We better just go and hope that our kids have enough talent to get us to 84, and obviously our kids had just enough talent.”

Even with the loss, Harmatuk said he would “love” to see the Elam Ending in future games.

“[The ending] was a blast,” he said. “To eliminate fouling down the stretch, as a strategy, makes for more entertaining basketball.”

Westtown hinted at a steep learning curve.

“Kind of liked [the Elam Ending], but it was definitely new for us,” Brown said. “Just kind of adjusting and getting used to it was the biggest thing.”

Said Lively: “It is new for me. I’m not opposed to it, but it was something new, so I didn’t know what to do.”

The players weren’t the only ones who needed to adjust.

“I have no idea how to coach the Elam Ending,” Berger said. “You would think that because there are four basic rules in the Elam Ending that it would be really simple to understand. Trust me, it is not.”

The game result had seeding ramifications for PAISAA, the independent schools’ state tournament. Harmatuk and Berger are in preliminary talks about using the ending again next year, should their teams meet.

“[John and I] loved the experience, we loved the kids to have a great experience,” Berger said.

“I think it was a great game for everybody.”