JACKSON — Micheal Johnson sat on the concrete floor outside the home locker room, tears streaming from his eyes.

The Noxubee County High School girls basketball coach had every reason to be emotional after his Tigers beat Union 30-26 in Wednesday’s MHSAA Class 3A semifinal, securing a spot in the state championship game.

Why?

“I was a little kid the last time we came,” Johnson said.

That was 1994, the last time Noxubee County made the state title game — and won it. Twenty-eight years later, Johnson led the same Tigers team one step closer to repeating history — although he disputed his level of involvement.

“It’s all them,” Johnson said of his players. “They do everything. I just stand on the sideline, I promise you.”

Johnson paced the sideline at Mississippi Coliseum on Wednesday as the Tigers beat the Yellow Jackets thanks to stout defense, strong offensive rebounding and a healthy dose of Tootie Lockett.

The sophomore guard scored 18 of Noxubee County’s 30 points to lead her team into Saturday’s final against Booneville, a 45-30 winner over Franklin County earlier Wednesday.

Lockett had all eight points for her team in the fourth quarter and made all six of her free-throw attempts in the period. She sealed the game with a pair at the line with 0.5 seconds left after sprinting down the court to catch a long inbounds pass and racing to the basket.

The designed play was drawn up at a critical juncture with Noxubee County leading 30-28 and just 3.7 seconds to go. But Johnson and the Tigers knew it would work against Union’s man-to-man press.

“We knew they were going to come with man full-court, so my thing was just, ‘Get out,’” Lockett said.

As Lockett dribbled down the court, Johnson felt at ease for perhaps the first time all morning after the Tigers and Yellow Jackets went back and forth. Noxubee County had a six-point lead that seemed nearly insurmountable at times, but Union pulled ahead in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

Then the Tigers won the fourth quarter by a 10-3 score, watching Union senior Keirra Russell clank a tying shot off the rim in the final moments. The Yellow Jackets promptly fouled Lockett under the basket, and Noxubee County ran its inbounds play to perfection to secure the win.

“It was like a monkey off your back,” Johnson said. “To see that happen, everything just lifted off me at that moment.”

All the struggles of an up-and-down regular season melted away for the Tigers. Noxubee County headed into the playoffs with an 11-11 record; Union, meanwhile, entered Wednesday’s game with a 21-2 mark.

Johnson had to implore his team to turn on the switch, but it wasn’t easy: He said it felt like “the switch is not even on the wall.”

“We’re not playing the type of ball I know we could play,” Johnson told the Tigers. “Everything’s on y’all. Y’all can do it. We can go the distance.”

Noxubee County showed that Wednesday by forcing Union into miss after miss. The Yellow Jackets made just one shot in the second quarter as the Tigers took a 17-13 lead into halftime.

But Union’s Kamyia Russell got her team back into the game with all 10 points in the third quarter, sinking a short jumper for the lead with nine seconds left in the period.

Georgia Cooper hit her second 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to tie things up at 26-all after a quick response by Lockett and Noxubee County. It was perhaps the Tigers’ only defensive lapse of the game.

“We missed 2 a couple times,” Johnson said of Cooper. “She did what she does: She made shots. She’s a good player also. But we played great defense.”

Noxubee County didn’t allow any points for more than five minutes to close the game, thanks in part to its dominance on the offensive glass.

Seemingly every Tigers miss was followed by multiple offensive rebounds, although Johnson lamented his team’s inability to make most of its putback attempts.

Lockett was particularly effective despite her size, grabbing two offensive rebounds on two separate fourth-quarter possessions.

“My coach told me, ‘Crash the boards,’ and I crashed the boards and did exactly what he said,” Lockett said. “All I had to do was listen to him, and he was right.”

She put her team on top for good with two free throws with 5:12 to play, and the defense held Union in check from there.

When they needed it most, the Tigers had found the switch they sought.

“They turned it on at the right time, and we’re here,” Johnson said.

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.