NEW HOPE — As RL Mattix went up for the shot, the crowd rose with him.
Late in Saturday’s MHSAA Class 5A second-round playoff game, the New Hope senior had an open look on a 3-pointer from the right wing, and he held the follow-through as his attempt reached its apex and began to fall toward the basket. On one side of the gym, New Hope fans stood in expectation of a critical make to cut the deficit down to two points; on the other, Holmes County Central supporters silently wished the shot awry.
The ball came down off the rim hard, bouncing off the top of the backboard where it was dead, out of bounds to the Jaguars. The Trojans’ half of the gym sat back down, defeated.
It was just another example of an uncharacteristically cold shooting performance for New Hope, which lived by the 3 in a stellar regular season but certainly died by the 3 Saturday night. The Trojans (23-2) couldn’t find their rhythm from beyond the arc and found themselves upset by Holmes County Central, 55-50.
“You can’t have a good shooting night every night,” New Hope senior Jaylen Smith said.
In previous games, the Trojans got to the rim or to the free throw line when their shots weren’t falling; Saturday, while New Hope took its share of free throws, the Trojans failed to convert from close range often.
The opposite was true for Holmes County Central, which used crisp passes to run its transition offense to perfection, triangulating basket after basket from point-blank range.
For New Hope, the lackluster defensive showing was unusual, Smith said.
“Normally, we’re a quick team, so we should be able to get back,” he said. “Tonight, we just didn’t get back in time.”
New Hope held its own all night and even surged into the lead in the third quarter, pulling ahead 36-28 on a layup by sophomore Caleb Parr just over a minute into the period.
Then the Jaguars called timeout to regroup, and “the energy just switched,” New Hope senior RL Mattix said.
After another layup from Parr, Holmes County Central answered with 12 consecutive points — eight of which came at the rim — to wipe out the deficit and pull ahead, 40-38.
“We lost momentum, and they just went up,” Mattix said.
Smith sank a layup early in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 48-46, but Holmes County Central answered again, pushing the lead back to six. When New Hope freshman LJ Hackman converted a three-point play and followed with a pair of free throws to make it a one-point game, the Jaguars responded with a 3 of their own.
New Hope seemed poised to fight back in the final minute, closing a nine-point deficit to three as senior DJ Hughes and Mattix knocked down 3s.
But Holmes County Central point guard Ralph Tyes made the second of a pair of free throws to make a two-possession game, and New Hope missed two deep jumpers on the ensuing trip. The Jaguars split another pair at the line with 1.8 to go — a mere formality — and the clock ran out on New Hope’s season.
Mattix and Parr each finished with 15 points, tying for the team lead. Hughes scored 10, and Smith had eight.
McBrayer acknowledged how difficult the loss will be for the Trojans, especially the team’s eight seniors — Smith and Mattix both said they expected more success after a dominant regular season.
“That’s the hard part about it,” McBrayer said. “You spend so much time with these kids, and you see them hurt the way they do — even when they laid everything on the line out there.”
For Mattix, who signed with Northeast Mississippi Community College in November, Saturday’s game will be one he won’t forget.
But after the contest, he offered hope that the memory won’t always be painful. Mattix greeted Tyes warmly as the teams lined up to shake hands after the game — a sign of moving forward.
“It’s tough, but life goes on,” Smith said. “It’s more than basketball.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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