La GRANGE --- Trailing 50-49 with 2.5 seconds to play, North Lenoir junior forward Jaroyce Mason stepped to the free throw line and calmly sank two shots to give his team a 51-50 lead.
Or so it seemed.
A fraction of a second after the second shot fell through the bottom of the net, a whistle blew the play dead and negated the second point on a North Lenoir lane violation. Tied at 50-50, the game headed to overtime, where Southern Wayne out-lasted the Hawks for a 58-54 non-conference win.
“The lane violation was a tough call,” North Lenoir coach Anthony Loftin said, “but we have to accept it, learn from it and get better from it.”
That the outcome would come down to a pair of late free throws seemed unlikely for most of the night as the Saints nursed a nine-point lead as late as 6:36 in the fourth quarter. It was about the time the Hawks got hot from long range.
Junior guard Javonta King, who had 11 points, hit a pair of 3-pointers on consecutive trips down the floor. Jalen Robinson, also a junior guard, hit another trifecta at 2:13 to close to within one at 45-44.
The Saints responded by slowing down its half-court game, and with Southern Wayne holding the ball near mid-court, the Hawks were forced to foul with about a minute to play. Thanks in part to a poor rebounding effort by the Hawks on the ensuing free throws, Saints went to the line three times in the span of 10 seconds and pushed their lead back to five at 49-44.
“Leading up to that (the pivotal lane violation), boxing out on free throws was not very good,” Loftin said.
Senior Jauquaz Jones, who led all scorers with 20 points, pushed the ball up the court and hit a 3-pointer from about 25 feet out, and the Hawks got the ball right back off a Southern Wayne turnover.
Junior Luke Jackson attempted to give his team the lead, but his corner 3-point attempt was off the mark. Robinson grabbed the offensive rebound and found Jackson under the basket with a nifty tip pass to pull even at 49-49 with half a minute to play.
The Saints, who favored an up-tempo style all night, once again pushed the ball up the court and drew a foul under the basket. Southern Wayne’s Tarvis Bradshaw, who finished with 14 points, converted the first of two free throws for a one-point lead but missed the second. The Hawks finally grabbed a defensive rebound and with seven seconds left and raced toward their end, where Jones drew a foul under the basket with 2.5 seconds to play.
After hitting the first, and after the untimely lane violation negated the second free throw, the Hawks prevented Southern Wayne from ending the game in regulation. The Saints, however, scored eight of the first 10 points in overtime as the Hawks went 0-for-7 from long range in the extra period.
“It was a good high school ball game,” Loftin said. “We played hard, and we came a long way back. It was tough getting right to the end and not being able to finish it.”
The Hawks travel to Greenville Rose Monday and will host Farmville Central on Tuesday.
Girls’ game:
A late rally wasn’t enough to save the Hawks, as they could not overcome an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit. Led by 23 points from Zaria Atkins, Southern Wayne defeated North Lenoir 46-40.
The Saints got a double-double out of Cierra Thompson, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Meanwhile, four Hawks’ players accounted for all but one of North Lenoir’s points. Quoya Porter, Alyssa Borja and Mikayla Kremer had 10 points apiece, while Laura Haerer had nine points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots.
The Hawks led 9-7 after a quarter and trailed 20-18 at the half. North Lenoir scored only four points in the third quarter on a pair of Borja baskets, and the Saints pulled away to take a 29-22 lead into the fourth. There, the Hawks, who shot 16-of-53 (30 percent) from the field on the night, finally found an offensive rhythm, converting on five straight trips on 5-of-6 shooting to pull within two at 33-31 with 5:13 to play. The Saints responded with an 8-1 run and converted 12 of 17 free throws in the second half to close out the win.
Boys
Southern Wayne 17 10 9 14 8 — 58
North Lenoir 6 10 13 21 4 — 54
SW scoring: Tarvis Bradshaw 14, Jaylen Roberts 14, Maurice Butler 11, Pearsall 6, Shaw 5, Bennett 3, Allen 2, Thornton 2, McKinney 1.
N. Lenoir scoring: Jauqaz Jones 20, Javonta King 11, Jackson 7, Letchworth 5, Mason 4, Robinson 3, Allen 2, Ginn 2.
Girls
SOUTHERN WAYNE 46, NORTH LENOIR 40
SW 7 13 9 17 — 46
NL 9 9 4 18 — 40
SW scoring: Zaria Atkins 23, Cierra Thompson 12, Johnson 4, Wilson 4, Seaberry 3.
N. Lenoir scoring: Quoya Porter 10, Alyssa Borja 10, Mikayla Kremer 10, Haerer 9, King 1.