SCOOBA — Taylor Lattimore’s arms went up slowly, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she had just witnessed, what she had just done.
The East Mississippi Community College sophomore guard had fired an off-balance 3-pointer with less than a second to go in regulation in Thursday’s MACJC tournament championship game against Jones College. She landed on one foot and stumbled backward as the desperation shot found nothing but net. At midcourt, she stood a little stunned, then raised both arms in dazed triumph while her teammates pelted toward her in glee. Fellow sophomore guard Topazia Hawkins lifted Lattimore off her feet in celebration.
But the jubilee was short lived. Lattimore’s shot had tied the game at the buzzer, and there was still more basketball left to play. In overtime, EMCC fell behind three points with 2.8 seconds remaining and held possession again. To Lions coach Sharon Thompson, there was no doubt who would get another attempt at the tie.
Lattimore caught the ball on the right wing and fired for 3 in one fluid motion. It was an easier look than her first tying make, and this time, there was no doubt.
“When I let it go, I knew it was going in,” Lattimore said.
She tilted her head back and yelled to the roof, but the ensuing celebration was cut short again with the start of double overtime. Fueled again by Lattimore’s magic, though, EMCC needed no third act.
The Lions (24-2) flattened the Bobcats in the second overtime period, earning an improbable 87-73 win that at times seemed impossible and winning their first MACJC title since 1984.
“This has been 19 years in the making,” said Thompson, who is in her 15th season as EMCC’s head coach after four as an assistant with the team.
It was also the 19th straight win for the Lions, who will begin play in the NJCAA Region 23 tournament next week in Clinton.
“I guess 19 is my lucky number,” Thompson said. “I’ve gotta play the lottery: 19 is my number.”
On Thursday, though, the Lions’ lucky number was certainly Lattimore’s No. 3. The sophomore had been cold from the field in EMCC’s three state tournament games — including early on Thursday — but she got hot at the precise moment her team needed it.
“She didn’t shoot it well all night,” Thompson said. “She hadn’t shot it well the whole tournament. But she’s making big shots for us. She came through when we needed her.”
With the Lions trailing the Bobcats 63-60, EMCC collected the rebound on a missed free throw by Jones’ LaMiracle Sims, who led her team with 22 points Thursday. The Lions called timeout and inbounded from the frontcourt with 1.5 seconds to go, looking for Hawkins. But the play fell apart, so the pass went to a tightly guarded Lattimore, who spun backward as she fired a deep 3 from the left wing.
“‘We worked too hard for this,'” sophomore forward Maddie Riley thought from the bench. “‘We can’t lose.'”
“But Taylor’s a good shooter, and she made those shots all the time in practice, and I knew she was gonna make it,” Riley said. “I had faith in her.”
“‘Oh my God,'” Lattimore thought to herself as the miraculous shot went down. (Suddenly feeling light-headed, Thompson sank into a waiting chair on the bench.) “‘God is real.'”
Just over two minutes into the first overtime period, Jones’ Daja Woodard was ejected for punching Riley in the nose as she dove for a loose ball. The technical foul gave EMCC two big free throws and provided Lattimore and the Lions with another jolt of energy — and a desire for some vengeance as both teams sought the golden championship trophy in the shape of a basketball.
“‘Now it’s time to take their heart,'” Lattimore told her teammates. “‘They want the ball, and we want it, too, so it’s time to take what they want.’ We went out there, kept fighting and took it.”
Her second game-saving 3 of the night rattled home with 0.3 seconds to go, and the Lions’ offense finally started clicking in double overtime. EMCC scored the first nine points of the period and cruised from there to a comfortable win.
“Once we start making shots, it’s over,” Thompson said. “We’re gonna defend, but once we start making shots, it’s over.”
The Lions were already assured of a spot in the Region 23 tournament, but now they enter it with their heads held high and a shiny gold trophy in their hands.
“We worked so hard for this,” Lattimore said. “We came in and grinded every day. In the weight room, we went in and grinded every day. Coach T pushed us hard every day.
“It’s amazing,” she added. “It feels good. It feels wonderful.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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