FULTON — Aniya Saddler had struggled to score for most of the night.
The Columbus High School senior had only 11 points, below her typical scoring output, with 18.2 seconds to go in Saturday’s MHSAA Class 5A quarterfinal game against Lafayette at Itawamba Community College in Fulton. The Falcons had the ball in a contest tied at 36-all, and despite her off game, Saddler was still optimistic.
“I was just like, ‘Something good’s gotta happen,'” Saddler said. “Something good just has to happen.'”
So she made it happen.
With the clock winding down, Saddler took a pass from freshman Shania Givens, split two Lafayette defenders and nailed a floating jumper from just inside the free throw line with 1.2 seconds to go. The Commodores couldn’t get a shot off before the buzzer, and Saddler’s heroics stood as the Falcons (24-4) advanced to the Class 5A semifinals with a 39-37 win.
“This team, we never give up,” junior DJ Jackson said. “Big-time players play in big-time moments, and that’s what we did.”
Columbus trailed by one with under a minute to go as Lafayette played keep-away with the basketball to run down the clock. But before the Falcons could foul after a timeout and send the Commodores to the line for a one-and-one, Lafayette threw the ball away and out of bounds, giving the Falcons new life with 53.6 seconds to go.
“It felt like I had a weight on my shoulders, and it just backed off,” Jackson said.
Saddler was fouled with 31.3 seconds left, but before she stepped up to the free throw line Jackson took her aside.
“‘You got this,'” Jackson told her teammate. “You got this. There’s no pressure. Block out the crowd. It’s just you and this ball and this net.'”
Facing a one-and-one opportunity of her own, Saddler knocked down both free throws as calmly as she could — given the circumstances — to put the Falcons ahead.
“We knew that she had to make them,” Hairston said. “She made them when it was time to make them.”
But Columbus fouled Lafayette with 18.2 to go, and the Commodores split their free throws.
Saddler’s services were needed again, and she delivered by dropping the floater and firing up the Falcons’ bench. The senior never takes that type of shot during games, her coach said; when she tries them in practice, she usually misses.
“We practice that, but she doesn’t make it,” Hairston said. “She made it when it counts, though. That’s all that matters.”
Columbus saw its 17-11 lead at the end of the first quarter evaporate as Lafayette went on a 10-0 run early in the second quarter to go up 21-19 with 3 minutes, 39 seconds left in the half.
The stretch motivated the Falcons to quickly respond.
“We have to put everything on the court in order to win,” Saddler said. “So when we saw them coming up, we were like, ‘Nah, we can’t have that. We have to work — we have to do something in order to take the lead.'”
Columbus did just that, scoring six straight points to close the half at 27-21. But after the Falcons went up 31-25 with 2:30 remaining in the third quarter, Lafayette went on its own run to tie the game 31-31 headed to the fourth.
Saddler, who finished with 13 points, had seven of Columbus’ eight points in the fourth quarter, including the final six. With the Falcons down three points, she made a jumper from the right elbow and drew a foul with 2:43 left. Saddler missed the free throw, and Lafayette held possession for nearly two minutes before turning the ball over at a critical moment.
“She just turned the ball over,” Hairston said. “She threw it, and nobody was there, and we had an opportunity to get our hands back on the ball.”
Saddler and Columbus capitalized, as the senior put her team ahead with her clutch free throws and pushed them into the Class 5A final four with her underutilized floater.
“We’re just happy,” Hairston said. “Oh my God, if somebody had told me at the beginning of the year we were going to be in the playoff playoff, I would have said, ‘No, no way.’
Now, Columbus is headed to Jackson to face Laurel (17-15) in the semifinal round at 4 p.m. Tuesday. For the Falcons, it’s still “one game at a time,” Hairston said.
“We get another game, so that’s the most important thing,” she said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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