By By Austin Bishop/Special to The Star
Feb. 3, 2001
The best was definitely saved for last in the MPSA Division 3-AAA Tournament being played at Lamar School Friday night.
Jared McKee hit a pair of free throws with 1.8 seconds left in the game and Central Hinds missed a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer as the homestanding Lamar Raiders took a 57-55 win over the Cougars.
The Raiders were trailing 49-39 with 4:30 to play in the game, but mounted a thrilling comeback to move into tonight's finals against Manchester Academy at 8:30 p.m.
Friday's other boys game saw Manchester roll past Copiah Academy 66-41, while in girls action Central Hinds beat Manchester 54-43 and Copiah cruised past Lamar 47-20.
The action begins today at 4 p.m. with Lamar and Manchester tangling in the girls consolation game, while the Central Hinds and Copiah boys face off at 5:30 p.m.
The Copiah girls met the Central Hinds girls at 7 p.m. in the finals, followed by the Lamar-Manchester boys final.
All four boys and girls teams advance to the MPSA AAA South State Tournament at Copiah Academy in Gallman next week.
Yates said his boys, now 9-18, waited until the right time to play one of their better games of the year.
The Lamar offense was stymied in the first half, with leading scorer McKee on the bench with three fouls and second-leading scorer Dusty Jones cold from three-point range.
McKee picked up his fourth foul with 6:14 left in the third quarter and had to sit until the fourth quarter.
He made up for his time on the bench in the last eight minutes, as he scored 12 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, including hitting six straight free throws.
With Central Hinds leading 49-42, Jones hit a pair of threes to cut it to 49-48 with just over two minutes to play in the game.
McKee it to one again at 51-50 with two free throws with 1:30 to play, only to have CHA take a 53-50 lead.
McKee hit two more free throws to cut it to 53-52, before the Cougars used two free throws by Jordan Ash Q who made six straight down the stretch Q to push the CHA lead back out to three.
Sam Eakes responded with two big free throws for Lamar to cut it to 55-54, then Jones tied the game with a free throw with 17.5 seconds left. He missed the next free throw, but Eakes claimed the offensive rebound, to give Lamar a chance to win the game in regulation.
McKee was fouled with 1.8 seconds left and made the free throws to win the game. CHA threw a long pass and called time out on its offensive end to set up one last play with 0.8 seconds left. The shot from the right wing hit the back of the iron and bounced away, giving Lamar the win.
Jones led Lamar with 20 points, while Eakes had nine points, including two key offensive put backs and pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds.
Copiah Girls 47, Lamar 20: The Lady Raiders fell behind 21-0 at the end of the first quarter and never really challenged in the game as they fell to 5-23 on the year.
Madeline Price led Copiah with 17 points, while Ashley Garner scored 13. Libby Huff was high scorer for Lamar with six. Copiah led 34-16 at the half and 43-20 after three quarters of play.
Central Hinds Girls 54, Manchester 43: Freshman Ashley Murphy scored 16 points, including four three-pointers to push the Lady Cougars into tonight's finals.
Alisa Deviney scored 13 for the 18-13 Lady Cougars, while Dianna Adams scored 12 and Ashleigh King had 12 for the Lady Mavs.
Manchester Boys 66, Copiah 41: The Colonels of Copiah challenged Manchester early, but the Mavericks were just too strong.
Bubba Goodman scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half to lead MA, while Brett Cerda scored 14 and Brent Sanders hit for 11.
Casey Tebo led Copiah with 11.