Thanks to David Watson, it was the last four seconds.
Watson sank a putback of a Tate Chesser miss to give the Dragons a 68-67 victory in Jefferson.
"He was in the right place at the right time," Jefferson coach Boling DuBose said of Watson, who finished with 21 points --including a 3-pointer with 15 seconds remaining to pull the Dragons within 67-66. "He's only 125 pounds and not a banger, but I think their entire team rushed Chesser, who had a pretty good look, and David was right there when it didn't go down."
The victory represented the second thrilling comeback in a row for Jefferson (23-6), which pulled off a similar result in the Region 8-AA championship game over Riverside Miltary Academy.
"I've got to give the kids credit; they don't stop working," DuBose said. "We just kept chipping away, and we came up with some big plays late."
Manchester (19-9) led from the start, building a 39-26 advantage at halftime, incurring a defensive change from the Dragons.
"I switched us to a man-to-man in the second half, and I was worried we wouldn't be able to stay with them -- they're so quick," DuBose said. "But the kids did a great job defensively."
Jefferson chipped away at the lead but never pulled ahead or tied the game until inside the final minute.
J.J. Damons also scored 18 for the Dragons, who will play host to Westminster in the second round on Tuesday.
Tremaine Kelly scored a game-high 27 for Manchester.
Jefferson's Darius Minor
http://accesswdun.com/article/2010/2/227349