Prep Sports

JACKSONVILLE — What a difference a couple of days make.

Just Wednesday, Anniston's boys basketball team was feeling the euphoric high of winning a war of a game on a last-second shot. Senior Josh English stroked a darn near impossible runner in traffic from approximately 35 feet out as time expired to lift the Bulldogs to a three-point win over J.O. Johnson in the AHSAA Class 5A Northeast Regional final at Pete Mathews Coliseum.

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On Friday against Butler in the regional final, they were on the opposite end of a buzzer-beater that defied all-probability. The Bulldogs lost 69-66 in triple overtime on a hanging, double-clutch 3-pointer by Rebels' point guard Trevor Lacey that nearly popped out of the cylinder before rolling in to put an end to the most thrilling game the tournament has seen.

"You saw some great poise by some young people today," Butler coach Jack Doss said. "This is Trevor's first year on the varsity."

Lacey, a 6-foot-2 freshman who is rated as the one of the top players in the nation in the Class of 2011, finished with 36 points on 13-for-15 shooting from the field, including a perfect 5-for-5 from beyond the arc and 5-for-7 from the free-throw line on his way to earning boys' Class 5A Regional MVP honors.

His game-winner was the only field goal attempted in the second half.

After winning the tip in the third extra period, Butler, just as it had done in the first overtime, held the ball for 3:40 before calling a timeout with 20 seconds remaining on the clock as the Anniston faithful booed mercilessly in hopes of spurring the Rebels to action.

When they emerged from the timeout, they ran a play to get Lacey the ball with the game on the line on the right wing. When he caught the ball with about three seconds to play, the red-hot Lacey, who had scored six of the Rebels' last eight points, immediately squared up and elevated.

With a defender in his mug, he was forced to hold the ball in the air but still got the shot off.

"It was a hard-fought game," Anniston coach Schuessler Ware said. "Nobody wanted to lose. We felt like whoever won this game would win the state championship, looking at the competition that's still left."

Butler (26-5) will face Parker at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday in the state semifinals at Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex.

The 'Dawgs had survived the Rebels' first attempt to stall out for the last shot in the first overtime.

Anniston chose to sit back in a zone defense and wait for Butler to bring it as the Rebels held out for the last shot for over three minutes in the first overtime.

Butler senior Ralf Eason wound up with a clean look at the basket from the elbow of the foul line, but the shot rimmed out sending the game into a second overtime that took on a different tempo, ending in an 8-8 knot tied at 66 to force the third extra period.

"I felt pretty safe," Ware said of his decision not to the pressure defensively to Butler in the first and third overtimes. "I knew coach Doss wanted to get the ball to the middle. We did what we supposed to do. He just got the shot up."

English, who was named to the All-Tournament team along with junior guard Milton Curry, did everything he could to give the Dawgs a shot to win. The 6-1 guard, who scored 13 points, sank a pair of free throws with no time on the clock at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime.

"He was real big all year, "Ware said. "Coming into the season, he had all the weight on his shoulders. Early on, we were wondering from day to day how this team would do, and he was the only returner."

Anniston was forced to play without starting guard Marquez Safford for much of the second half after he went down with a knee injury in the third quarter.

"That really hurt us," Ware said. "He started for us all year, and we forced to play some guys who normally don't play in that situation."

Curry led Anniston with 17 points, including 5-for-7 shooting from 3-point range. Quintarious Hutcheson scored 16, and Brent Tolson added 13 to go along with nine rebounds for the 'Dawgs.