In what amounted to a county championship game, Dallas County’s Kareem Ross made a free throw with 0.7 seconds left Saturday to lead the Hornets past rival Selma 46-45.

Ross rebounded Raheem Phillips’ miss and was fouled on a put back attempt. He missed the first free throw, but after a Selma timeout he made the second.

“Taking the first shot was tough because he’s never been in that situation before,” Dallas County boys basketball coach Willie Moore said. “I thought after they called a timeout, he had a chance to settle down.”

Selma’s final court length pass went out of bounds, giving Dallas County the win and according to Moore, the right to call themselves the best team in the county.

“It was a county championship game and I will say this — we are the best team in the county hands down,” Moore said. “I only think there’s one year in the last ten that anyone could even question that we are not the best team in the county.”

With Saturday’s win, Dallas County has a pretty good case. The Hornets swept Southside and Keith and split with Selma after a hard fought road loss in early January.

Selma head coach Woodie Jackson thought the Hornets had a little help Saturday.

“Everybody in Selma saw the game and what went on from the other guys on the floor  — the other guys, other than the 10 players,” Jackson said.

Jackson said his Saints, who beat Keith three times, have a win over Southside, split with Dallas County and beat Ellwood Christian are the county’s best.

The game was played in front of a packed house at Wallace Community College Selma. Every seat in the gymnasium was filled and approximately 50 more fans had to stand by the entrance so they could watch the county’s biggest two schools do battle.

Most of them would probably agree they got their money’s worth. Just like the first battle between the two rivals, which ended in a 57-55 Selma win on the second day of 2015, this one was close throughout.

Although the Hornets never led by more than six, Dallas County did not trail for the first three quarters. Jerrod Moorer was on fire early, as he knocked down three opening quarter three-pointers as part of a 28 point night.

Only thee Hornets scored the entire game — Moorer, Raheem Phillips and Ross.

Phillips had 15, including six in the fourth that helped the Hornets regain control after Selma had taken its first lead. Ross made one basket, a shot in the first quarter, and made the game winning free throw at the end.

After trailing the entire game, Selma took a 35-33 lead on a Juwan Waters layup with 6:35 left in the fourth quarter. A Dexter Hatcher three-pointer made it 38-36 Saints with 4:51 to play.

After the lead swapped back and forth, Moorer and Phillips made back-to-back layups to give Dallas County a 43-42 lead. Selma seemingly regained the lead with 58.9 seconds left after Hatcher made two free throws, but the second was wiped off due to a violation and the score remained tied 45-45.

Dallas County ran the clock down to 11 seconds before Moore called timeout. When play resumed, Phillips took the ball to the basket, missed and Ross got fouled trying to put the rebound back up.

“We had too many turnovers,” Jackson said. “We lost by one point. I don’t know how many free throws we missed, but we lost by one and we didn’t have the defensive stop when we should have gotten it.”

Selma missed six free throws in the game. Quentavious Davis led seven Saints players who scored with 10 points.

Dallas County will host Sumter Central in its class 5A, area 6 regular season finale. The winner of that game will host the area tournament the following week. Selma will not play again until Friday at Wilcox Central.