With the clock ticking down to 11 seconds in the game and the score tied at 64-64, James Clemons had possession of the ball and was going for the win with a last second shot. But fate wouldn’t have it. The ball rolled off the rim, Elijah Terry rebounded and in a frantic last 7 seconds, Trevon Kimmerlin made Enterprise High School history hitting a jumper with 0.9 seconds left to give the Wildcats their first 7A state championship and the win 66-64 at the BJCC Arena.

The victory avenged the Cats loss to Oak Mountain in the championship game last year and closed out the AHSAA’s 100th State Basketball Championships.

“We did it!” EHS head coach Rhett Harrelson said. “We DID it! An unbelievable group of seniors bought into what we asked of them and even today, they battled back. The resiliency and toughness of this group I will never forget. I am so proud of them.

“This is for Enterprise,” Harrelson said. “This is for everybody. This is for the community, for the administration, the teachers, the school, everybody. This is for you. This is for Enterprise.

“When I was a senior in high school I had customized Kobe’s (shoes) and I wrote ‘state’ on the tongue of them. My dad and my uncles, I have long family lines that run through Enterprise. I always heard them talk about it and that’s all I ever wanted to do (win a state championship) growing up.”

Even with less than a second on the clock, James Clemons didn’t give in, attempting a three-fourths length of the court shot that bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

“The message was to hold the ball until the last 5 seconds but unfortunately that wasn’t the case,” James Clemons coach Frankie Sullivan said. “That way if we did miss and it did go to overtime, I thought we had a good chance to win because they were in foul trouble. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

“Give Enterprise their due diligence,” said Sullivan. “They played a physical game, tough game.”

The game was a game of runs with tough defense for both teams. In the first period, Enterprise went on a 7-0 run to lead James Clemons 16-9 before the Jets scored 7 straight to tie things up 16-16 going into the second period.

James Clemons started where it left off to begin the second period and went on an 8-0 run to go ahead 24-16. The Cats started to climb back in when Kenneth Mitchell hit two 3-pointers in a row and went on an 8-0 run to bring Enterprise within 27-26. Enterprise closed out the half coming within 2 points of James Clemons and going to the locker room down 36-34.

The Jets dominated the Cats on the boards in the first half leading 21-16 in rebounds. However, the Cats had 9 steals and 9 turnovers to the Jets 3 steals and 12 turnovers. James Clemons shot 45 percent and only 44 percent from the free throw line. Enterprise shot 40 percent but a blistering 83 percent from the free throw line.

Enterprise tied up the score 40-40 off a Quentin Hayes 3-pointer at the 5:49 mark of the third period before the referees took over. Terry was called for his second foul at the 4:20 mark and again one second later for his third. Keion Dunlap was called for a foul 1 second later at 4:19. Dunlap then picked up his fourth foul at the 3:51 mark with Terry picking up his fourth foul 17 seconds later. James Clemons went on an 8-0 run and the score stood at 50-42. Enterprise turned the ball over three times in the last 1:59 of the period and the Jets went into the fourth period up 54-47.

Enter Kemmerlin. Terry started the fourth period with a dunk off an assist by Kemmerlin who proceeded to hit two free throws one minute later to pull the Cats up 54-53. He hit two more free throws and a three-pointer in the next two and half minutes to put Enterprise in the lead 62-61. James Clemons had a layup to go back in the lead at 63-62 before Tomar Hobdy hit a jumper to put the Cats back in the lead at 64-63. A free throw by the Jets tied up the game with 1:53 on the clock. James Clemons called a timeout with 37 seconds left in the game to set up a final play but missed the shot and the rest is history. Kimmerlin’s jumper in the paint with less than a second sealed the win for the Cats.

“I shot and I made it!” he said. “I saw Elijah get the rebound. I was standing at half court. He threw it over to Tomar, Tomar got it to me and I shot it.”

During the last timeout of the game, Harrelson asked his team to get a stop. “We talked about it all year,” he said. “Tre feels like he bobbled the ball 10 times but then it was nothing but bottom. It may not have gone like that but that’s how I remember.

“It was really a back and forth,” Harrelson said. “They’re really emotional. We got out of character a couple of times, got argumentative, and that’s not us. But we got back and battled back.”

“I think this is huge for us but also for our youth,” said senior Quentin Hayes. “Last year when we made a run we lost, but our youth started showing out more. It’s been huge for the city.”

“It means a lot,” said Terry.

Enterprise balanced the scoring well with Mitchell as the leading scorer with 14 points. Hayes had 11, Kemmerlin had 11 with nine of them in the fourth period, Dunlap had 8, Terry had 7, Jordan Hines had 7 and Hobdy had 6.

The difference in the game was free throws. Enterprise was 19-23 for 83 percent and James Clemens was 8-18 for 45 percent. The Cats shot 100 percent on free throws in the second half.

The two teams were even on rebounds with 35 each. Enterprise finished the game with 19 turnovers to James Clemons 16.

Terry, Mitchell and Hayes were all named to the Class 7A Boys State All-Tourney team. Terry was named the MVP of the tournament.

The team returned to Enterprise in the wee hours of the morning Sunday to a crowd of family and supporters who watched them cut down the net in Wildcat Arena as they celebrated their 2021-22 state championship.

See next week’s Sun for a special tribute to the 7A Champion Enterprise Wildcats.

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