HOT SPRINGS - Two years of state finals frustration came to an end for Kahron Ross and the Jonesboro Hurricane on Saturday night.

Ross, a 5-11 senior guard, scored 15 of his team-high 19 points in the game’s final 8:23 as the Hurricane stunned top-ranked Little Rock Parkview 66-54 in the Class 6A boys state championship game in front of 5,940 fans at Summit Arena.

Two years ago, Ross and the Hurricane suffered a double overtime loss to the Patriots in Hot Springs. In the 2013 final at Barton Coliseum in Little Rick, Jonesboro lost on a last-second shot to Little Rock Hall.

It was Jonesboro’s turn to celebrate Saturday.

“The guys who played on our teams the last two years played well enough to win,” Jonesboro Coach Wes Swift said. “We just weren’t lucky in either of those two games. This was a little bit of redemption for those two years.”

Jonesboro (29-3) never trailed after the 4:40 mark of the first quarter, scoring 10 consecutive points to take a 12-4 advantage at the 2:15 mark.

The Hurricane’s lead grew to 16 midway through the third quarter and slipped to as little as 55-52 with 2:56 to play, but Ross scored nine of the game’s final 13 points to salt away Jonesboro’s 15th consecutive victory for its first title since 2007.

“When [Parkview] started coming back I was, ‘Not again. Please, not again,’ ” Ross said. “I was so glad we were able to build that lead back up again. We won, and I am so happy.”

Jonesboro started the fourth quarter with a 50-40 lead, but Parkview (27-2), led by a surge started by senior guard Daryl Macon, pulled to within 50-46 at the 6:04 mark.

Ross completed a threepoint play and Jerome McIntosh scored on a putback with 3:37 left to push the Hurricane’s advantage to 55-48. But a basket by Parkview’s Jaylen Franklin and a two free throws by Braelon Walker melted Jonesboro’s lead down to 55-52.

“We got off to a great start, but we knew [Parkview] wasn’t going away,” Swift said. “They throw everything at you. It got down to about a five-point game early in the fourth quarter and I called Kahron over. He had seven or eight points at that point and I just said, ‘Kahron, take us home,’ and he did from that point.”

While Ross put the finishing touches on the Hurricane’s 11th state title, it was seniors Marquise Pointer and Bradley Sherrill who put Jonesboro in the prime position.

Pointer (14 points, 12 rebounds) scored Jonesboro’s first seven points, and Bradley, who had been a home school student until this year, came off the bench and scored a season-high 13 points. Bradley finished 5 of 8 from the floor, including a 3-for-3 performance from beyond the three-point line.

Parkview entered the game on a 19-game winning streak and had rarely been challenged by any Arkansas team this season, but the Patriots made just 4 of 14 shots in the first quarter and 6 of 22 for the first half. Parkview also finished with 17 turnovers and made only 20 of 32 free throws.

“In the first quarter we had a defensive problem,” Parkview Coach Al Flanigan said. “From then on, it was a layup problem and a turnover problem. We just ran into a team that just outhustled us today.”

Macon finished with 24 points. He made 7 of 11 shots, 9 of 14 free throws, grabbed 6 rebounds and picked up 2 steals. But Macon and Franklin (10 points) were the only Patriots to score more than six points.

“Points don’t mean anything,” Macon said. “We lost.”

“It’s tough to come to that final game and have some players not step up like they should,” Flanigan said. “But it will happen.”

Even in the fourth quarter with Parkview turning up the pressure, Jonesboro never swayed from its game plan of attacking the basket.

“There is no press like Parkview’s press,” Swift said. “When you play for Coach Flanigan, you have no choice but to play hard and do things right. You’ve got to have spacing, and you’ve got to have guards who believe in themselves.

“In the end, we just kept attacking. That was the word of the week. We wanted to attack them. We knew they would attack us. That’s not a question, but we had to attack them, and I think we did for the most part.”

The result lifted a ton of pressure off the Hurricane players’ backs.

“This feels like a relief,” Pointer said. “After two years of heart-breaking losses, I’m just glad we got the win.”Quotebook “In the end, we just kept attacking. That was the word of the

week. We wanted to attack them. We

knew they would attack us.” Jonesboro Coach Wes Swift

Sports, Pages 24 on 03/16/2014