The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

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December 29, 2009

Pettaway leads Tarboro boys to classic finish

Calvin Adkins

Down by two points with four seconds left in the game, Tarboro Viking Markell Pettaway smiled when his coach called his number to take the last shot of the contest. That smile soon erupted into pandemonium by the players and spectators when the Vikings senior knocked down a 3-pointer that stunned the Williamston Tigers 73-72 during the Edgecombe County Holiday Classic tournament Monday night in Tarboro.

Williamston fought back from a 13-point deficit and outscored the Vikings 26-15 in the fourth quarter. The Tigers took there first lead (70-68) of the game after K.J. Brown, who lead Williamston with a team-high 17 points, hit four free throws stemming from a foul and a Vikings' technical foul on the same play with 1:09 left in the game.

The four-point swing took the air out of the Vikings' home crowd, however their players didn't give up.

Williamston blew an opportunity to put the game out of reach in the closing seconds by hitting two-out of four freethrows including the last one with 17 seconds left in the game.

With 17 seconds left in the game Pettaway drove the ball the length of the court and pull up for a jumper that clanked off the right side of the rim and then was kicked out of bound by Tiger player with four seconds left in the game.

Trailing 72-70, the Vikings called timeout and Coach Lashaun Jenkins told his team, "We're going for the win."

Sophomore guard Jamias Williams (17 points) found Pettaway at the top of the key and the senior took a jump shot that hit nothing but the bottom of the net to seal the victory.

"When they called the play in the huddle, I ran out smiling," Pettaway said. "I wanted to take the shot to end the game."

Jenkins said going for a deuce was not an option.

"We run that play every day in practice," he said. "I have confidence in my players and they have confidence in me. That was a great pass by Jamias and then a great shot by Markell."

Perhaps Williams was more excited about the shot falling, because he had taken an ill-advised 3-pointer while they were leading 68-66 with less then 1:30 left in the game.

"It was unbelievable," he said. "It gave me a chance to make up for my mistake. We did what we had to do to advance to the next round."

The Vikings will play the winner of the SouthWest Edegcome-North Edgecombe game Wednesday for the boys championship. The two Edgecombe teams will battle tonight at 6 p.m.

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