All good basketball shooters find a spot on the court and make it their own. Practicing over and over, repetition the key to getting the feel, the exact angle of the shot.

For Warren Central’s Shantta Taylor, her spot is about three feet in from the baseline, 18 feet out.

As the the final seconds ticked off the clock with Warren Central trailing 47-46 Friday night in the championship of the Warren Central Classic, Taylor found her spot. The pass came her way and time stood still. She didn’t have enough time to size up her shot, she just took the ball and let it fly like the thousands she has done in practice. When the leather eased through the nylon, Taylor found herself in the center of pandemonium.

Warren Central 48, Callaway 47.

&#8220I knew we didn’t have much time and had to go hard down the court,” said Taylor of the frantic final seconds with WC having no time outs remaining. &#8220I felt like I had to shoot it because they were all ganging up on Sha’Kayla (Caples).

&#8220I just shot it and prayed that it would go in.”

From the bench, Lady Vikes coach Donny Fuller said he thouhgt it had a chance.

&#8220I said to myself, ‘I believe this son-of-a-gun is fixin’ to go in,’” Fuller said. &#8220I have seen her make so many of those shots over the years.”

Leading 47-46 with about six seconds to play, Callaway’s Jessica Collins missed a free throw. The Lady Vikes rebounded the ball, worked down the court and found Taylor in the corner for the game-winner.

It was only the second basket of the night for the senior Taylor and it capped an unbelievable comeback against one of the stronger Jackson Public Schools teams.

&#8220We played horrible the first half,” Taylor said. &#8220But we never gave up. We knew we could come back against them.”

Warren Central missed 15 of 21 shots in the first half, turned the ball over seven times and was completely out of sync, trailing 26-11 at the half.

Caples scored eight points in the half, but the rest of the offense was nonexistent.

&#8220We played about as bad as we could possibly play in the first half,” Fuller said. &#8220But we came back and our kids put it all on the line. I don’t think a team could have played any harder than we did.”

Buoyed by the unstoppable Caples, who scored 23 of her game-high 31 points in the second half, the Lady Vikes scored the first nine points of the third quarter to get the deficit down to 26-20. Callaway’s Kiana Thomas scored four straight points to get the lead back to 10. The lead stayed in double figures into the fourth quarter.

Callaway led 43-34 with three minutes to play in the game. Two Lady Chargers’ backcourt violations allowed WC to get the deficit to 45-42 before Caples stole a pass – her 7th of the game – and converted a basket to pull within a point with 23 seconds to play.

Kiana James, who scored 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, hit an open layup, before WC countered with the final two of Caples’ 31 points to set up Taylor’s heroics.

Caples scored 31 points in each of the Lady Vikes’ two tournament wins. She ended with 13 rebounds and the seven steals. Brittany Willis had five, the second-leading scorer on the team.

&#8220I thought the kids showed so much heart and desire tonight,” Fuller said. &#8220We were down 15, we weren’t doing much of anything well, the coach is chewin’ on you at halftime and instead of getting an attitude, these kids sucked it up, listened to the coach a little bit and won the game.”

(G) VHS 57, Jim Hill 52.

Kamiko Martin scored a game-high 21 points, Rachel Jenkins scored 11 and Taylor Ammons added 10 points as the Missy Gators won the consolation game of the tournament.