CHARLESTON - If you asked eStem Coach Neci Howard who would be her least-likely player to get a pass to take a game-winning jumper, she would have said Tiandra Mooney.
Mooney, a 6-2 freshman, didn’t disappoint her coach Tuesday as she made her only basket of the game with 3.4 seconds left to send the Lady Mets into the Class 3A girls championship game with a 56-54 comeback victory over Paris at the Tiger Center.
eStem will face Harding Academy, which edged Riverview 50-47 in the other semifinal game, for the title. The Lady Mets beat the Lady Wildcats 41-36 in the third place game of the Region 2 tournament March 1.
Paris seemed to be in control at the end, but a charge call on Lady Eagles freshman Lycia Peevy gave eStem the ball with 32 seconds left.
Sophomore guard Gia Hayes kept the ball at midcourt, then drove to the basket with 8 seconds left, spun in the lane and passed to Mooney, who hit the open 9-foot jumper near the baseline.
“Nobody expected Tia to step up,” Howard said. “It just shows that you have to be ready when you’re called on to take the shot.”
After two Paris timeouts, Peevy had a good look at a 23-foot, three-pointer but it rimmed off at the buzzer.
Paris (29-7) jumped out to a 30-17 lead late in the first half and still led 34-26 midway in the third quarter before eStem put together a 12-4 run to finish the third quarter. The spurt was capped by Becca Mosler’s three-point play that tied the game at 38-38.
“We talked in the first half about how we needed to stop giving up easy baskets in transition,” Howard said. “We needed to make them work hard to beat us. I told them the game was going to be won or lost in the third quarter. We were either going to get back into the game or we were going to tap out.”
Olivia McWilliams led eStem with a game-high 24 points, while Hayes finished with 16 and Mosler added 14.
Peevy led Paris with 20 points. Morgan Highfield contributed 16 points and Christa Huber added 11.
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Shelby Gowen scored 15 points to lead Harding Academy (25-8) past conference rival Riverview (28-5) and into the title game.
Riley Rose added 10 points for Harding Academy, which rallied in the final period to win its third game in five tries against Riverview this season.
Erykah Johns had 10 to pace Riverview (28-5).
Sports, Pages 22 on 03/12/2014