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Avon Park brings Jesuit up short with buzzer-beater

TAMPA -- It was the most unlikely of endings.

The shortest player on the court made a buzzer-beating, game-winning shot to lift a visiting team with a losing record to within one game of the state final four.

Kirk Taylor, a 5-foot-4 point guard, grabbed the bouncing inbound pass with 2.7 seconds left. Taylor dribbled directly at three Jesuit players more than 8 inches taller and sank a running three-point shot to give Avon Park a 76-73 win.

The shot ignited a raucous Red Devil celebration on the court as stunned Tiger fans stood in the stands, staring in disbelief at the end of a 24-7 season.

"That was a little sloppier than I had planned for but it went in," Avon Park coach Jim Whitney said. "I've had Kirk Taylor for four years now and he never stops surprising me. If some college somewhere can forget that he's 5-foot-4 they're going to get one heck of a basketball player."

Avon Park (12-13) will now play Wesley Chapel on Saturday for a final four berth. That is a game that came within seconds of never happening.

Jesuit seemed to be in control, holding the ball out of bounds with 4.9 seconds to go and the score tied. James Bunn grabbed the inbounds pass and moved right to set up for a three-pointer. As he broke, Bunn stepped out of bounds and the ball went back to Avon Park.

"We got ourselves in position to win, we had possession but unfortunately he stepped out of bounds," Jesuit coach Neal Goldman said. "All year long we've been able to make that shot."

Instead the heroics fell to Taylor.

"I scared myself," Taylor said. "I was just trying to get a foul until I got in the air then I was trying to make it. It feels real good."

No matter what Jesuit did it was never enough to put the game out of the Red Devils' grasp.

Jesuit opened the game with five three-pointers but led by only four at the end of the first quarter. The Tigers went on a 13-4 run in the second yet led by only one at the half.

More importantly, Jesuit hit a trio of threes in the fourth quarter and led by as much as five with under five minutes to go but still found itself tied with one possession to go. For the game, Jesuit hit 11 three-pointers. Bunn collected seven of those to lead all scorers with 33 points.

"That was tremendous basketball by both teams," Goldman said. "They both played their hearts out. You can't put this loss on one shot at the end. There were a lot of things that went into this game being that close."

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