The frantic final minute of Little Rock Hall's 42-39 victory over Little Rock Parkview on Friday included two clutch offensive plays -- one by each team -- that had the game headed to overtime.
Insanity intervened.
Parkview (7-12, 2-4 5A-Central) tied the game at 39-39 on a three-pointer by Darius Miller with 12 seconds remaining and the clock running at Ripley Arena.
Hall inbounded the ball to senior guard Jacorie Williams with hopes of getting off a final shot.
Hall couldn't call a timeout because it didn't have any left -- neither did the Patriots -- and Williams tried weaving through Parkview defenders.
He never came close to getting off a shot.
The ball was knocked away as he crossed mid-court and picked up by the Patriots with 3.3 seconds to play.
Several Parkview players appeared to signal for a timeout in hopes of setting up for a final shot.
But Parkview was whistled for a technical foul since it had no timeouts to take, giving Williams two free throws and Hall possession.
Williams missed the first, but he made the second one to give Hall a 40-39 lead.
Parkview fouled Dylon Sessions on the inbound play, and he made both free throws to secure the victory.
It won't go down with Chris Webber's gaffe in Michigan's 1993 national championship loss to North Carolina, or Syracuse's Lawrence Moten helping Arkansas stay alive in the 1995 NCAA Tournament, but it was memorable for a 5A-Central matchup on the last day of January.
"They made the shot, and we came back, and had the wherewithal to try to get it to the bucket," Hall Coach Jon Coleman said." It was just a crazy type game."
Parkview Coach Scotty Thurman, the former Razorbacks star and member of the 1994 national championship team as well as the 1995 team that benefited from Moten's miscue, said he and his assistants had told the players they had no timeouts left during the timeout before Miller's game-tying three-pointer.
"He was reacting," Thurman said of Keylon Harris, a junior guard who received the technical for the timeout call. "He knew. We told our guys we didn't have any timeouts, but you know, sometimes a young guy, in that moment, never really been in that situation before ... made a bad play."
Coleman said the Warriors (7-7, 3-3) won the game because they persevered.
"This is one of the most intense rivalries in the state," he said. "When Hall and Parkview play, it's going to be a battle. And that's what it was tonight, a battle. Both teams played hard. My hat's off to Coach Thurman and his team. They played a heck of a ballgame.
"Our guys were resilient. They went up, we came back. It was a seesaw-like."
Thurman said Hall controlled the tempo, as indicated by the final score.
"I think it was a battle of styles," Thurman said. "We want to play fast. They want to play slow. I knew once they got a little cushion early on they were going to try to slow us down, that's what they did. At the end of the day, we've got to have more guys stepping up at the right time."
Williams finished with 12 points and converted a reverse layup with 1:35 to play to tie game at 36-36.
Brock Wesley's three-point play made it 39-36 with 35.6 seconds left.
"That's what a high school game should be about," Coleman said.
Girls
LR PARKVIEW 46, LR HALL 37
Parkview outscored Hall 13-2 over the game's final 5:40 to overcome a two-point deficit.
Dynasty McGraw and Jasmine Davis each scored 13 points to lead the Lady Patriots (6-6, 3-3).
Aaron Yarbrough led Hall (2-16, 1-5) with 13 points.
Sports on 02/01/2020