Friday night was a big night for Jackson Central-Merry basketball
It was homecoming, and the Cougars were entertaining a visit from their neighbors a few blocks away from Madison.
That game is also a game in District 13-2A, and the Cougars were trying to keep their perfect record in district play intact.
Madison had other plans as the Mustangs, who pushed JCM in their earlier meeting at Madison's home court on the campus of the University of Memphis at Lambuth, led for most of the second half by as many as nine points.
One major problem for JCM was their shots weren't falling consistently. Head coach Kendall Dancy had to keep telling them to continue to shoot even if they're missing, because at some point, they've got to start going in.
But the Cougars fought their way back within striking distance in the game's closing moments.
With 7.5 second remaining, JCM had the ball out of bounds under the goal. Dancy called timeout to get a play set up.
The ball made it into the hands of Landon Braswell, who was set up at the top of the key. But when the player throwing the ball in hit the ball to signal his four Cougar teammates to run the play, Braswell quickly got to the wing in front of the Cougar bench.
"We shoot from different places all over the court every day - hundreds of shots," Braswell said after the game. "I've shot that shot probably 1,000 times from that spot since the season started in practice, so I was ready if I got the ball in my hands at that moment."
A Madison player was there to get a hand in Braswell's face, but he was ready for it as the ball sailed through the hoop for a quick lead with 3.5 seconds remaining.
Madison tried to get a shot off at the end, but it was from half court and didn't come close to going in.
"This is a big win for us because of how hard Madison pushed us," Braswell said. "Our shots weren't falling for a lot of the game, and that's frustrating, but we had to keep fighting."
Dancy said the name of the game for his team is to keep shooting when shots aren't falling.
"We're a really young team with a lot of sophomores on the court," Dancy said. "That can be good and bad.
"But it was good tonight because they listened to me when I told them to just keep playing hard, keep shooting, keep trying to get open when they don't have the ball in their hands and keep getting back and playing defense."
This game was the first rematch in district play for the Cougars, and they're preparing for rematches with another crosstown rival at Liberty plus Riverside, Scotts Hill and Adamsville.
"There will be nights like this a few more times this year probably," Dancy said. "And hopefully, if they hadn't learned it already, they learned tonight to just keep shooting."
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news