BROOKSVILLE - Dan Widboom was only trying to draw a foul, but he picked up a season instead.
With Hernando facing elimination against Pasco, Widboom downed a tying 3-pointer as time expired in regulation.
Sophomore Jamar Byrd's layup with three seconds left in overtime then lifted the Leopards to an improbable 74-72 victory.
Hernando will play Wildwood, a 50-39 winner over South Sumter, in tonight's final, where the Leopards will seek their second championship in four seasons.
Hernando (16-10) clinched its seventh playoff berth and third in four seasons. It will play the District 5 winner or runnerup in Thursday's region quarterfinals, depending on the outcome of tonight's game.
For the Leopards, Friday's game was merely the latest in a series of stirring, come-from-behind victories.
"That's great experience," coach Jeff Laing said. Pasco (15-11) led by as many as 11 points, and Jimmy Lyman's two free throws with 8.1 seconds remaining in regulation gave the Pirates a seemingly safe 64-61 lead.
Hernando went to its "bingo" play, in which Kyle Swanston brings the ball up the floor and has the option to shoot or look for Widboom or Chris Korbus, who were positioned along the 3-point arc.
Swanston passed to Byrd, who took a quick glance at the basket before passing to Widboom. With a Pasco defender in his face, Widboom shot and fell to the floor, hoping to draw a foul. Instead, the ball swished through the hoop as the buzzer sounded, creating pandemonium.
"When I let it go, I was like, "Please go in, please go in,' " Widboom said, "and it did."
Widboom's shot set the stage for Byrd, who entered the game in the fourth quarter. Six seconds after Widboom tied the game a second time with a reverse layup along the baseline, Byrd followed the same path to the hoop for the winning layup, making a prophet out of Laing.
"I've told the guys since the beginning of the season that we get so much out of Kyle and Jeff, but guys like Chris Korbus, Jamar Byrd and Dan Widboom are going to end up winning games for us, because shots are going to flow to them and we really need them to hit those shots in that situation."
