Late call proves pivotal in Selma Saints’ loss to Jefferson Davis
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, February 25, 2004
TROY&045;With under a minute to play and Selma trailing Jeff Davis 69-64, wing man John Dailey took a feed deep in the right corner.
He gathered his right foot underneath him, maybe he slid, maybe he didn’t.
As a defender launched himself towards Dailey, the Selma guard let fly a 3-pointer that touched nothing but the bottom of the net. The Selma faithful in the stands erupted, thinking the Saints had a chance to cut the lead to a point.
Jeff Davis coach Terry Posey waited on the call.
The ref rolled his hands, signaling a travel.
It was Jeff Davis’ ball, no basket and a dagger in the heart of the Saints.
Selma didn’t quit fighting, Dailey and Edgar Brown each hit late 3-pointers but Selma fell short in regional play in Troy, 76-72.
That was certainly the case in their fifth meeting this season.
The game went back and forth with Selma leading by as much as seven and the Vols leading by as much as 10 in the fourth quarter.
Having faced each other so many times, it built a resigned familiarity between the teams.
No matter what happened, each team seemed to expect the other to bounce back.
That rivalry added extra juice to the loser-go-home Regional game.
Both teams came out with a fire that showed why they were among the final 16 teams standing.
The way the game went back and forth, fans should have anticipated a wacky ending as well.
Though Selma trailed by 10 with 3:12 left, the Saints had one last run left in them.
Brown hit a two, then after a Darret Fletcher block, Dailey converted on the other end to cut the lead to 67-61.
Davis cut the lead to five with a 3-pointer and the crowd began to buzz.
Jeremy Carter came up with a steal, and fed the ball to Davis who couldn’t convert the three.
Then Selma forced another turnover and Dailey got the ball in the corner.
The shot was good, but the travel call negated it.
After a pair of Vols’ free throws, Brown hit for two.
The Vols made two more free throws before Brown hit a 3-pointer to cut it to four.
The Vols again converted at the stripe before Dailey banked home a three with 12 seconds left.
The Saints needed the Vols to miss both free throws and Kerry Harris obliged with the first but he made the second and Jeff Davis survived for the win.
The Vols won the game at the free throw line and with a pressure, trapping defense designed to keep the ball out of senior Brandon Davis’ hands.
Jeff Davis shot 26-of-37 at the charity stripe and forced 22 Selma turnovers.
The Saints shot 14-of-20 from the line and forced 15 Jeff Davis miscues.
Davis led all scorers with 26 points for Selma while grabbing eight rebounds. He was the game’s leading rebounder as well.
Dailey had 15 points for Selma while Jeremy Carter added 12 points and six rebounds before fouling out in the final minute.
Brown added 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Fletcher had four points and seven rebounds. Robert Childers added four points as well.
For the Vols, Hal Johnson led with 16 points.
Harris added 13 and Cory Thomas had 11.
Lawrence Jordan added 10 points.
The Saints’ season ends with a record of 19-9.