[02/19/01] GREENVILLE The miracle shot didn’t fall for Vicksburg High on Friday night. Miguel Henyard’s desperation 3-pointer as time expired bounced off the rim, giving host Greenville a 47-44 win in the championship game of the Division 3-5A Tournament.

The Gators (24-10) will have to travel to either Starkville or Columbus in the first round of the North State tournament on Tuesday. With a win, they would have hosted the first playoff game.

“It showed a lot of heart and character from our team,” said Greenville coach Charles McInnis, whose team lost at VHS in the title game last year.

Gerrick Durrell led VHS with 13 points and 12 rebounds while Chris Humes came off the bench to score 10, eight in the second half.

Derrick Davis’ torrid fourth-quarter shooting and sloppy play by the Gators allowed the Hornets to claw back from 14 down late in the third.

Davis hit on 7 of 8 shots in the second half and scored a game-high 21. His two free throws with six seconds to play sealed the win.

“We just turned the ball over way too much,” Vicksburg coach Dellie Robinson said. “We had an opportunity to put the game away, but we just turned the ball over.”

Greenville’s turnaround started in the final seconds of the third quarter after Vicksburg built a 37-23 lead. Two turnovers and three Greenville baskets to end the third cut the lead to eight.

“That was really big,” Davis said. “It gave us the lift we needed for the fourth quarter.”

In the final quarter, Vicksburg’s offense went ice cold. The Hornets cut the lead to 43-37 with 3:32 left. The Gators scored just one point the rest of the way as Greenville ended the game on a 10-1 run.

The Hornets took their first lead of the second half, 45-44, on an Andrew McNeal putback with 50 seconds remaining. After stalling the ball for 25 seconds, VHS’ Jason Walker called timeout while falling out of bounds to keep possession.

Holding for the last shot, the Gators got the ball to center Demetrick Allen, but he got caught too far under the basket.

His attempted pass was intercepted by Davis with six seconds to play.

Davis made two free throws and Henyard, who hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime to beat Gentry in the first round, just missed from about 25 feet.

Vicksburg held McNeal, the Hornets’ top post player, to just four points and three rebounds. He was out earlier this season when VHS beat Greenville.

The Hornets won when he was in the lineup.

McNeal spent most of the third quarter on the bench with foul trouble. When McNeal went out, the Gators led 22-18 but quickly extended the lead to double digits.

“That was our game plan, to get their big men into foul trouble,” Robinson said. “I thought we did a tremendous job of that. Our problem was, we didn’t take care of the basketball.”

After switching to a pressure defense midway through the fourth quarter, the Hornets forced eight of the Gators’ 16 turnovers.

“They came with the press and we just couldn’t get the ball down the floor,” Allen said.

Gentry’s girls, who upset Warren Central in the first round of the division tournament, pulled off another upset to beat Greenville in the title game.