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Seahawks guard Steve Kerr pays homage to his namesake with a buzzer-beating, overtime three-pointer to propel South Lakes over defending Liberty District champion Langley on the road.
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By Phil Murphy
Senior Multimedia/Content Manager, Washington D.C. Metro Area

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In Game 6 of the 1997 NBA Finals, Chicago Bulls' guard Michael Jordan turned to guard Steve Kerr for the championship-clinching jumper.

And when the San Antonio Spurs needed clutch three-pointers in the Western Conference Finals six years later in 2003, Kerr got the call again.

It took another six years, but Kerr's late-game heroics were sought again, this time by the Seahawks.

Different Steve, same stroke.

South Lakes senior guard Steve Kerr hit a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to beat host Langley, 61-58, in overtime on Tuesday.

"He'd been on all game," said senior Travis Williams of Kerr's game-high 18 points. "I closed my eyes, I'm not going to lie. I close my eyes for a second. I just blinked, opened it and the ball went in.

"I just went screaming down the court."

Added senior forward Jamal Hulum: "I know my man, Big Shot Steve, a.k.a. Steve Kerr, everybody knows him now. I was like, 'Steve, you're going to make the shot.' I had that feeling. As soon as he caught the ball, I knew he was going to shoot it and let that thing go."

For a team that was the odd-man out of the Northern Region tournament last year, the importance of beating the defending Liberty District champion Saxons on the road cannot be understated.

The satisfaction of the emotional, statement win was written across the faces of Seahawks' players and parents alike.

But do not expect South Lakes (7-4) to rest on its laurels.

"We have to keep that same intensity -- everything we just did -- take it to Woodson," Hulum said. "If we play like this, nobody can beat us.

"We're the best team in the Northern Region if we keep playing how we've been playing."

Through the first four minutes, no one would dispute that claim, as South Lakes started the game on a 13-2 run.

But Langley (8-2) responded with an 18-5 run of its own to reclaim the lead at the 5 minute, 2 second mark in the second quarter. Neither team led by more than five points for the rest of the game.

"I'm concerned about the way we start games right now," Saxon Coach Travis Hess said. "We've gotten in some games where we came out flat and weren't ready to play and battled back to win.

"I think they get on the mentality that we can do that because we're good enough to do that every single night. Tonight, they were proven wrong."

They almost weren't.

The Seahawks trailed by two points with :15 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the ball.

It took two frantic offensive rebounds before senior guard Brandon Price banked in the game-tying basket at the horn to tie the game at 52 and force overtime.

The emotional win, in which four of the five periods ended on buzzer-beating buckets, left second-year South Lakes Coach Darryl Branch digging deep for motivational tools with another pivotal Liberty District game only three days away.

"I was thinking on the way back to the locker room, 'How do I get my guys tomorrow to focus in practice?'" said Branch, whose team went 17-6 in his inaugural year. "It's going to be hard, because people are going to be stroking them in the hallway and giving them applaud and stuff. But we have to come back to work harder to play Woodson on the road, who is supposed to be the team to beat in the district at their place. So that's tough.

"On the way back to the locker room, I was thinking to myself, 'How do I do that? How do I keep my guys motivated tomorrow in practice and Thursday?'

"Maybe I'll read a book or talk to Coach [Wendell] Byrd or something. I don't know. I'll find a way."

E-mail: pmurphy@digitalsports.com


South Lakes  16  11  12  14  9   --   61
Langley         13  13  12  14  6   --   58

South Lakes -- Kerr 7 0-1 18; Shaheedian 7 1-5 17; Williams 4 7-9 15; Price 3 2-3 8; Galbraith 1 0-0 2; Hulum 0 1-2 1. Team totals: 22 11-20 61.
Langley -- Baker 6 2-5 15; McLindon 5 0-0 14; Kody 4 3-4 12; Hunter 2 5-8 9; Justus 2 2-6 6; Kiffe 0 1-2 1; Pritchett 0 1-2 1. Team totals: 19 14-27 58.
Three pointers -- South Lakes 6 (Kerr 4, Shaheedian 2); Langley 6 (McLindon 4, Baker, Kody).