NEWTON – With the streets still lined with election-style lawn signs, it was a day of celebration in Newton, and it had nothing to do with wins or losses on the court.

The Newton North (8-3, 6-1) boys basketball returned to the hardwood mere hours after the Newton Teachers Association ended their strike with the Newton School Committee late Friday night with a 43-40 nailbiter over Bay State Conference and Carey Division rival Wellesley.

It took a gargantuan effort to pull off the first athletic contest for a Tigers’ team in over two weeks, but the return of school bells and referee whistles were the top priority, and everyone pointed to athletic director Mike Jackson for pulling everything together.

“Listen, kids are resilient, and it showed today so while I may not have had much sleep, it was all worth it. Give all the credit to the boys and girls basketball staff for the willingness to do whatever to get games in,” said Jackson. “To put these games together, it took a ton of folks, including everyone in the Bay State Conference – especially John Brown, who has been supportive of our efforts every step of the way.”

“To be honest, it’s been my mindset not to lose any games, make plans if necessary, and do everything humanly possible to avoid forfeits. But it was amazing with the support of the MIAA, our league, our nonleague partners, and for this one – I was on the shot clock with a skeleton crew, and we made it happen.”

Jackson still has his work cut out for him with assistant athletic director Allison Manzella, as they will have to make up games in hockey, gymnastics, as well as basketball. The boys hoops team will play four games next week, starting with Needham on Monday, whose squad was also in the gym for the return of basketball at Newton North.

The Tigers were understandably rusty most of the game but were held together by senior captains Dillon Taylor (10 points) and Teagan Swint, who finished with a team-high 16 points and was four-of-four from the free throw line in the final 25 seconds of regulation to seal up the three-point victory.

But the true measure of the impact Taylor had on the game was described as ‘Tiger Pride’ by head coach Paul Connolly. Taylor was ultimately responsible for gathering the troops and continuing the team communication without Connolly and his staff for the 11 days the team was out of the classroom.

“It started on Friday as a three-day weekend and then we had to take it day-by-day,” said Taylor, who found out with his teammates around 7 p.m. Friday that they needed to be ready to play. “But we had to bring everyone together and it really showcased our leadership. I want to personally thank Mike Jackson for hopefully putting all these games back together. When we got the call to be ready for 1 p.m. – everyone opened their eyes like, ‘Wow’, so it was pretty sudden – but we were excited.”

Wellesley (5-10, 3-7) made things interesting throughout despite some uncharacteristic three-point shooting woes. The Raiders shot 5-of-21 from behind the arc but were in things to the end as Brady Stevens (game-high 19 points) hit back-to-back treys, with his first coming with 1:08 left in the fourth to cut the lead, 39-37.

After a successful trip down the court for the Tigers, Stevens was at it again for the Raiders from behind the arc and gave Wellesley the brief one-point lead, 40-39.

But with the game on the line, in the second-to-last possession of the game, it was Taylor who stepped up for his teammates again as he did the past two weeks with a blocked shot in the paint to send his fellow captain Swint to the free throw line on the turnover in the game’s final moments.

Brad Stevens, the president of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, was in the crowd to witness his son’s dominating effort as well as the return for the Tigers and echoed the overwhelming sentiment from the crowd on hand.

“I’m just happy for all of the kids to be finally back playing,” said Stevens.

Newton North’s Nick Spinelli, left, attempts a shot over Wellesley’s Jeremiah Correa, right, on Saturday. (Photo by Paul Connors/Media News Group/Boston Herald)