WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — It didn’t matter that Ben L. Smith’s players had never been here before, in a literal sense. They had been here time and again in a different way — always with their backs to the wall, always up against crazy odds. Nothing ever easy.

It wasn’t championship experience that the Golden Eagles showed on Friday, but a championship attitude.

They’ll get some rings to go along with it.

Ben L. Smith came from behind and won a back-and-forth overtime classic over Southern Durham by a 64-62 score in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 3A boys basketball championship game.

Coach Derrick Partee said that there was a players’ only meeting during the year that focused the team for moments like this.

“From that moment, we were better defensively, we were better sharing the ball, just better all-around,” Partee said.

It was a game that had everyone at Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum on their feet in the final moments of the fourth as well as overtime.

Smith (29-3) went 7-of-8 from the free throw line in the overtime period — which is why they never trailed.

In its championship run, Smith won three games in either at the buzzer (like a third-rounder over Dudley), overtime (the championship over Southern), or both (an overtime buzzer-beating win at Crest in the fourth round).

Southern’s blossoming freshman point guard A.J. Morman had a 3-pointer rim in-and-out while down three with four seconds left. Two more free throws made it a five-point lead, and a 30-foot 3-pointer by Southern’s Jackson Keith at the horn went in for the final margin.

However, the fourth quarter was back-and-forth with six lead changes in the period.

With the game tied at 45-all, a jumper by Smith’s Jyi Dawkins put the Golden Eagles up 47-45 with 2:28 left, but Morman answered for Southern with an “and-one” to retake the lead 48-47 with 2:16 to play.

Neither team scored until a free throw from Keith, a Butler recruit, made the lead 49-47 with 1:03 to play.

Smith’s Tayshawn Mann’s drive to the basket with 29 seconds left made it 49-49. Southern’s final shot, a floater by Morman, was blocked at the buzzer.

“We actually executed our game plan in those moments,” Partee said of stopping Morman’s last-second attempts before he joked: “No where else in the game did we execute.” 

Dawkins, who led all scorers with 29 points (10-of-19 shooting, 8-of-9 from the free throw line), was named the Charlie Adams MVP of the contest. Kenny Miller Jr., the only other Golden Eagles player scoring in double digits (13), was named the West MVP.

Ben L. Smith’s first state title in school history comes in its second appearance — the other coming as a runner-up in 1995.

Southern (30-3), likewise was trying to win its first title in program history.

It got 23 points from Morman, who added seven rebounds. He was named the East MVP.

“They worked really hard and played really hard, we just came up a little short tonight,” Southern coach Greg Motley said.

After trailing for most of the first half, Ben L. Smith rallied with a lockdown effort of its own in the third quarter. The Golden Eagles held the Spartans to just five points in the third to cut the lead to 35-34 going into the fourth quarter.

Southern had led 30-22 at halftime and jumped out to a 20-10 lead after the first quarter thanks to its defense. While Southern was 8-of-19 from the field (42.1 percent), the Golden Eagles were just 7-of-21 (33.3 percent) and 0-of-5 from 3.

On Monday, 11th-seeded Ben L. Smith defeated 12th-seeded Hunter Huss 71-57 in the 3A West regional final while second-seeded Southern defeated top-seeded Swansboro 78-65 in the 3A East regional final. Those games were also at “the Joel” as part of the final four format.

Before the game, each team honored its sportsmanship award winner for the season: Jakari Glaspie from Southern and Mann from Ben L. Smith.

BOX SCORE
BLS 10-13-11-15-15 64
SDR 20-10-5-14-13 62

Ben L. Smith: Gavin Palmore 6, Micah Cowan 3, Kenny Miller Jr. 13, Tayshawn Mann 6, Jyi Dawkins 29, Ty’sere Payne 2, Kady’n Turner-Scott 5
Southern Durham: A.J. Morman Jr. 23, Jakari Glaspie 7, Kejon Hughes 1, Jackson Keith 23, Zaquan Bowling 8