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Jahvin Carter's game winner brings Alcoa basketball a TSSAA title to his hometown

toyloy brown iii, knoxville news sentinel
·3 min read

MURFREESBORO – Alcoa's Jahvin Carter had 11 seconds to decide the fate of his team.

The Tornadoes trailed by a point when Carter got the ball after a missed Douglass rebound and dribbled the length of the court before delivering Alcoa its first TSSAA basketball state championship since 1967. He scored off a layup with 2.5 seconds left.

It gave the Tornadoes a 59-58 win over Douglass on Saturday at Middle Tennessee State's Murphy Center in the Class 2A state championship game.

“Coach came to the bench and said, ‘Get the ball in my hands. Everybody put trust in me,'” said Carter, describing the plan prior to the missed free throw.

Carter said he had "tunnel vision" after he was given the ball once the free throw rimmed out.

He flew down the length of the court with the ball in hand. He weaved around lengthy defenders with grace and faced the moment of truth when he reached the rim. He leaped, shielded the defender with his body and dropped the ball through the net for a left-handed layup with 2.5 seconds remaining.

“That was the biggest bucket I ever had," Carter said.

Alcoa (30-8) won its third state championship in program history.

Carter, a junior, finished with 24 points, scoring 11 in the fourth quarter. Alcoa senior Jordan Harris finished with 14 points, six rebounds and two assists. Sophomore Jarmon Brittman led Douglass (26-8) with 18 points.

The Tornadoes only led for 1:48 of game time and struggled with the intense trapping by Douglass throughout. However, they found a way to force turnovers themselves and score timely baskets until the final tick.

Carter said that bringing the gold ball to home to Alcoa made him feel the most joy, especially seeing the number of fans who traveled for the game.

“This community, they in there, got their own student section, parents, grandmamas, daughters, children,” Carter said. “The community is crazy, they support everything. It’s just unbelievable how much support us athletes and us Alcoa students and anyone from Alcoa gets.”

Alcoa basketball coach Ryan Collins echoed his star's satisfaction with the support and how they rewarded them for their love.

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“To bring back the gold ball to Alcoa, and our school system and to the Alcoa community is everything to us,” Collins said. “Again, I know the community has a group they're going to be proud of forever, they're going to be talked about forever and they're very deserving of that.”

This year, Carter became Alcoa’s all-time scorer, passing the previous record holder of 1,748 points. He also set a school record with 62 points in a single season.

Collins recalls a time when he had a “tough” one-on-one conversation with his star player after a Jan. 3 loss to Bearden. Collins said that Carter listened and that he is most proud of the fact that a championship is forever etched into Carter’s legacy at Alcoa.

“You look and we win 21 out of 22. He shattered every record in Alcoa history individually. He's now got attached to his name a winner. Jahvin Carter now has winner attached to his name and that will follow him wherever he goes for the rest of his life and he’s deserving of that.”

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: TSSAA basketball: Alcoa beats Douglass to win Class 2A state championship