Dion Waiters was full of confidence when it came to crunch time.
With the game on the line and the crowd going absolutely bonkers around him, Waiters calmly sank the free throw to complete a three-point play with one second left that gave the Gamecocks a much-needed 63-62 win over Tennessee Tech.
Although no one available for JSU had ever made a game-winning shot for the Gamecks before, Waiters harkened back to his JUCO days for inspiration.
“I said I’ve got this, I’ve got you guys; just like in practice, I’ve got this,” said Waiters, a 64 percent free throw shooter on the season. “(The crowd) was a distraction, but it was like we were in the gym when coach Green has us shooting 100 free throws. You’ve got to have the confidence and start concentrating. I was thinking soft touch.
“This is such a great feeling. I don’t think the past couple years the team has been successful in road games, but tonight I felt this was a huge win. It gives my teammates and me more confidence to go out and compete with anybody.”
Waiters, a 64 percent free throw shooter this season, was 5-for-7 from the line in the game. He finished with nine points.
This was a JSU team still reeling from the departures of lone senior Stephen Hall and sophomore Frankie Bougher and injuries that left them with only nine available players.
The Gamecocks (7-14, 2-6 OVC) didn’t look like a team that was down early, overtaking Tech’s fast start to open a 12-point lead in the first half. But a stretch of only two field goals over a stretch of more than 15 minutes had them playing catch-up in the second half.
Leading scorers Tarvin Gaines and Darion Rackley had hot hands in the first half. The Gamecocks even held Tech’s Kevin Murphy, the OVC Preseason Player of the Year and league leading scorer, to seven points in the game. But nobody in red could find the range for a long time in the second half and with the Golden Eagles (11-8, 3-3) dominating on the boards, it looked like they were headed for another painfully close loss.
Instead, they were able to snap a 13-game road losing streak.
“It was great for those guys to figure out that you can be outmanned, you can be smaller, you can be all of that, but you just go play, have fun, do the best you can and see where it goes,” JSU coach James Green said. “Our guys did that.
“We could see the look in their face today at shoot-around that they weren’t so sure. But we made our goal easy: Play as hard as we can, have as much fun as we can, put as much detail as we can into it and let the chips fall. We had to believe if we did that we were going to have a chance and they fought through a lot of adversity in the second half and every guy who got an opportunity out there contributed — greatly.”
JSU was down three when Grant White lost his dribble in the lane with 19.9 seconds left. The Gamecocks had to foul on the turnover, but Kevin Murphy made only the second of his two free throws to make it a four-point game.
Brian Williams, whose potential game-tying 3-pointer fell short at the buzzer at Austin Peay, hit a 3-pointer from the right side with six seconds left to draw JSU within 61-60. The Gamecocks fouled Murphy again and again he made one of two — this time missing the second to set the final play in motion.
“All I heard was my teammates telling me, ‘attack, attack,’ because we were just down two,” Waiters said. “All I knew is I had to drive and try to get the contact and put it on the glass. I’m not sure if it was good or not, but the ref called it good. I knew I just had to get it off the glass and fortunately we got the foul that sent me to the line.”
Television replays along press row showed Waiters still had the ball in his right hand when the red lights came on in the backboard, but that wasn’t the discussion.
The officials huddled to determine whether a foul had been committed at the front end of the play. Referee Antinio Petty ruled the basket good and a foul, and put one second back on the clock. Curtis Shaw, the OVC’s supervisor of officials, wouldn’t allow a Tech game administrator dispatched by the media to get an explanation from the officials after the game, but he explained they could put time back on the clock if it was determined the foul occurred before the clock went to all zeroes.
Green said he didn’t think there was any question about the validity of the shot and he was “almost positive” the officials were going to put time back on the clock.
Tech coach Steve Payne said he thought the shot was good as it was unfolding, but said he was surprised the officials called a foul.
“(JSU) deserved to win the game,” Payne said. “They outplayed us. It wasn’t an officials’ call. They deserved to win the game.”
Al Muskewitz covers Jacksonville State sports for The Star. He can be reached at 256-235-3577.
