Davis’ buzzer-beater gives North Lenoir EP2A title

FARMVILLE — Helena Davis saved her best for last.

The North Lenoir senior guard hit a 10-foot jumper at the buzzer to send the Hawks to a 38-36 win against Tarboro in the championship game of the Eastern Plains 2A tournament on Friday at Farmville Central.

“This is awesome,” Davis said moments after the victory. “I hadn’t done well the whole night, so to finish up like this is incredible.”

Davis, who was defended by Tarboro coach Jamie Willoughby in a box-and-one all night, had struggled before her game-winner, hitting just one of her first nine shots. But the final shot, which came after a traveling turnover by Tarboro’s Delicia White with 4 seconds left, never got over the rim until it reached it.

In fact, Davis was sure she’d missed it and that the game would be headed to overtime.

“I was so scared I had missed it, but it did feel good when I released it,” Davis said.

Junior guard Enjoli Mason said, “I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ I didn’t think it was going to go in, but it did.”

The fantastic finish followed a close game in which North Lenoir (17-9) never led by more than eight points and Tarboro didn’t lead by more than four.

“This says a lot about the heart of this team, because they’ve never given up this season through all our adversity,” said NL coach Anthony Loftin, who led the Hawks to the EP2A title last year. “My hat’s off to my team.

Tarboro (18-6) took a 27-23 lead with 2:15 remaining in the third quarter on a basket from Koeasha Harrell. The Hawks then held the Vikings scoreless on their next 11 possessions, while scoring 12 straight points of their own to take a 35-27 lead with 5:29 left in regulation.

The Vikings weren’t through. Over the next 4 minutes, Tarboro chipped away at North Lenoir’s lead to tie the game at 36-36 on a bucket by White with 1:43 remaining. Following a North Lenoir turnover, Tarboro held the ball for more than a minute before attempting a shot.

After North Lenoir’s Mason missed a shot with 10 seconds left, White rebounded the miss but was called for traveling, setting up North Lenoir’s final shot.

Loftin called two timeouts before Davis’ heroics; one to see how Tarboro’s defense was set up (in a zone) and the second to finalize the play.

NL’s Timon Jones inbounded the ball and perfectly executed a skip-pass to Davis.

“I have to give a lot of credit to Timon, because she set (Davis) up perfectly,” Loftin said.

Mason and freshman Kristen Davenport tied for high scoring honors for the Hawks with 10 points each. Tarboro was led by Harrell’s nine points and White’s eight.

North Lenoir, Tarboro and Goldsboro tied for the EP2A regular season title with 7-3 re-cords. With Friday’s victory, North Lenoir earned the No. 1 seed in next week’s 2A state tournament and will host the Northern Carolina’s No. 4 seed on Monday.

“We don’t know who we’re playing yet, but we’ve got to go in and keep doing what we do best,” Loftin said. “We’ll be ready.”