Hilton Harrell described Tuesday’s win over Wingfield as the most pressure game of the season.
So naturally, Friday’s Region 6-5A district championship against Brookhaven should have been even more pressure-filled.
Not quite.
McComb’s litter of underclassmen calmly edged Brookhaven, 45-41, before a raucous standing-room only crowd at McComb to capture the district title.
“When you work hard, it’s not easy to surrender,” said Harrell, who coached his team to their first district title since 2010. “We knew we weren’t going to surrender because we knew we put in the work.”
The district championship caps off quite a turnaround for McComb, which missed out on the playoffs last year after a 14-14 record. And it’s especially promising for a team full of juniors that lacks senior leadership. The juniors became the de facto drill sergeants under the guidance of Harrell and helped McComb churn out a quality product on the court.
“That’s what’s so exciting about this group,” Harrell said. “They’re a bunch of juniors but they’re humble. They play like they have a mission and you love coaching them. They don’t have attitudes.”
McComb’s mission was clear Friday night. Instead of looking ahead to next week’s 5A South State tournament, the Tigers lived in the moment and earned a home playoff game Tuesday against Gautier, the region 7-5A runner-up.
The Tigers shook off a slow start that put them behind 14-5 at the end of the first quarter to win their 20th ball game of the season.
A 40-37 lead late in the game seemed like a 10-point hole for Brookhaven as McComb went into keep-away mode, just as it did Tuesday against Wingfield.
The duo of Antonio Johnson and LeDerrius Simmons helped drain 55 seconds off the clock before Brookhaven could even foul. Johnson drained both free throws and gave the Tigers a 42-37 lead with 1:05 to play.
Fred Trevillion was a non-factor for Brookhaven after scoring 14 of the Panthers’ 21 points in the first half. He managed just two points in the second half to finish with 16 points.
Brookhaven would eventually make it a one-possession game at 44-41, but a defensive stop with less than 30 seconds left sealed the game.
It was yet another close finish for McComb, which has been the theme of its season. The Tigers have now been involved in 10 games decided by fewer than six points.
“In life, it’s one step at a time,” Harrell said. “We talk about winning every game in front of us, having a tough schedule, playing really good teams early and then ... when it comes district time, to win a district championship. Our kids played like they had a lot of energy because they worked so hard to get here.”
McComb and Brookhaven traded blows all game long, with neither team leading by more than seven points in the second half.
Brookhaven had its last lead, however, at 29-27 with 1:00 left in the third.
McComb took the lead on a 3-pointer from Johnson, who scored all of his team-high 13 points in the second half, and never relinquished it.
Johnson’s 3-pointer was his first bucket of the game after a 0 for 8 start to the game. The junior guard got his confidence back with that shot and hit two more 3’s in the fourth quarter to extend McComb’s lead to 38-31.
“We talked about at halftime moving around and setting some screens to get him open,” Harrell said. “He took some shots that were uncharacteristic of him. … He wanted to win so bad he was rushing some shots.”
Following the poor start, Johnson finished the game by connecting on 4 of his final 6 field goals to go along with two free throws. Once he found his rhythm, others soon followed.
“We’ve got to have a couple outside shots,” Harrell said. “That’s what he did. We know we were going to get going sooner or later. We didn’t want him to stop shooting, that’s for sure.”
Simmons helped open up lanes Johnson and others all night long. Simmons, who hadn’t scored in double-figures since December, finished with 11 points and four assists.
“He was the floor general like we want him to be,” Harrell said. “He was really listening and really coachable which is exactly what we ask him to do.”
Shemar Williams also put in a strong performance with nine points and 10 rebounds, including several crucial boards in the final quarter.
Emmanuel Thompson provided a spark off the bench in the second quarter with seven points to help McComb erase an 18-9 deficit.
