A comeback for the ages Thursday night lifted the West Bladen boys’ basketball team into Friday’s championship game of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
The top-seeded Knights trailed Whiteville by 14 points with six minutes remaining to play. In just over two minutes of game time, Jamari Adams-Peterson’s 3-pointer from the left corner tied it at 70-all and sent the crowd inside Ken F. Cross Gymnasium into a frenzy.
Tylik McCall, who scored 20 of his game high 30 points in the second half, sealed the 80-74 win with three free throws in the final seconds, earning the Knights (19-6) a trip to Fairmont for the title game.
Fairmont upended No. 2 seed South Brunswick 76-59 in Thursday’s other semifinal game played at West Bladen. Fairmont will host the Knights on Friday following the girls’ championship game between Fairmont and South Brunswick set to tip at 6 p.m.
“Our motto is everybody breaks,” McCall said. “The trap got them tired. We started making plays. The guys had energy, rebounding, getting after the ball and that rally really helped us win the game.”
Nobody made more plays than McCall. The senior forward made 16 of his 18 free throws, was 6-of-9 on 2-point field goal attempts, collected six rebounds, made four steals and dished three assists.
“Whiteville was playing good,” McCall said. “They are a good team. They made some good shots, but we knew we’d take their legs. Eventually, the shots would stop falling and we would have a chance at the end.”
Jackson Pait, who scored 26 and 45 points in regular season meetings against Whiteville, had 13 points in Thursday’s game. Kendell Lessane added eight points and a team-high nine rebounds for West Bladen. The Knights shot 41% from the field, including only 2-of-23 from 3-point range, made 22 of 39 free throws and were outrebounded 43-34.
“We didn’t shoot it good, but our effort was amazing,” West Bladen coach Travis Pait said. “We played our pace. I don’t worry about making or missing shots. We kept going, kept going. Our big deal is we don’t care what the score is. We just want to play fast and let our dudes take shots and see what happens.
“This team believes in our style of play. That is a very good Whiteville team and to beat them three times is unbelievable, but they are very young and will be contenders for the next several years,” Pait said.
Teron Legette scored 18 points, Trayvionne Williams had 17 and Ty’Lae Rose had 14 for Whiteville (13-11). The Wolfpack shot 47% for the game, including 7-of-23 from 3-point range, and made nine of 20 free throws.
Whiteville shot well from the start. The Wolfpack led 26-17 at the end of the first quarter, 42-37 at half and 60-52 at the end of the third quarter.
A 3-pointer by Rose put the Wolfpack ahead 68-54 with six minutes to play.
That’s when West Bladen, and McCall, came alive.
The rally started with a three-point play from Jaquan Lesane followed by a layup from Cyncere Jessup off a pass from Jackson Pait that cut it to 68-59.
Whiteville’s Logan Little made a pair of free throws with five minutes remaining that put the Wolfpack ahead 70-59.
West Bladen scored the next 17 points in just over two minutes of game time for a 76-70 lead.
McCall started it with back-to-back three-point plays, then sank two free throws that trimmed the seemingly insurmountable deficit to 70-67. Adams-Peterson followed with his 3-pointer that tied it. Pait made two free throws, Keonta Hill made a short jumper in the lane and Damarion Bryant scored off a pass from McCall that gave West Bladen a 76-70 lead.
WHITEVILLEe (74) – Emmanuel Kemp 4, Corey Faison 7, Caleb McLean 2, Logan Little 12, Trayvionne Williams 17, Teron Legette 18, Ty’Lae Rose 14, Quatez Shaw.
WEST BLADEN (80) – Jackson Pait 13, Demarion Bryant 7, Tylik McCall 30, Kendell Lessane 8, Keonta Hill 4, Jaquan Lesane 5, Jamari Adams-Peterson 5, Carnell Lewis 6, Cyncere Jessup 2, Blake Britt, Justin Spaulding.
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