Top-ranked Fairfield missed 11 free throws in the final three minutes of the Class 5A state championship on Saturday afternoon.

But Jamaria Hamilton made the biggest one.

The junior hit the second of his two free throws with five seconds left, finally sealing the Tigers’ 69-65 victory over No. 4 Vigor at the BJCC’s Legacy Arena.

“I was a bit nervous, but I knew I wasn’t going to miss both of them,” Hamilton said.

The final free throw slammed the door on Vigor’s chances and gave the Tigers their second title since 2020.

“This is big for the city of Fairfield,” coach Maurice Ford said. “Most of the time, you hear negative news about Fairfield. This puts a positive spin on it. We needed that.”

Fairfield finished 28-2 with the victory. Vigor, trying to win the school’s first state basketball title, fell to 28-6.

“We are known in football at Vigor,” coach Jairus Jackson said. “We have state championships in football. We wanted to get a basketball one as well but fell a little short. It’s hard to get to this point. I’m proud of what the guys accomplished.”

Fairfield looked like it might run away with the game at the half. The Tigers used a 13-0 run to erase a three-point deficit and take the lead for good. Ford’s team finished the half on a 16-2 run and led 39-28 at the break. Vigor went without a basket in the final 5:14 of the second quarter.

The Wolves responded out of intermission. Vigor opened with a 9-2 run and closed to within 41-39 on a pair of Aslan Jones free throws with 5:14 left in the third. Ford said composure and poise was key for Fairfield at that time.

“We’ve been battle tested all year,” he said. “Even when we were down three or four in the first half, we knew we could play defense and defense wins championships. We came in at half, and we were up 11. The next thing you now it’s two or three points, but they never took the lead.”

Fairfield led 48-46 entering the fourth quarter and used a 12-4 run to build a 10-point lead, 62-52, on five straight points from Jones, who as named MVP. Vigor wasn’t done. The Wolves got back within three, 64-61, on Terrel Johnson’s tip-in but — despite the Tigers’ free throw troubles — couldn’t get closer.

Fairfield finished just 15-of-32 from the foul line.

“It’s unheard of to see people shoot free throws as poorly as we did and still win” Ford said.

Star of the game: Jones’ five-point run in the fourth quarter gave Fairfield enough breathing room to hold on for the win. He finished with 14 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals.

Stat sheet: Fairfield – DeMarcus Williams led four in double figures with 17 points. He also had 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Jeffrey Duncan had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Milton Jones had 10 points. Vigor – Terrel Johnson finished with 22. Aslan Jones scored 20. Al Holcombe had 10 rebounds.

By the numbers: Vigor had a 37-30 rebounding edge. … Fairfield was 26-of-45 from the field and 2-of-7 from 3. Vigor was 23-of-59 from the field and 6-of-24 from 3. The Wolves were 13-of-16 from the foul line.

Foul trouble: Vigor had three players foul out – Ke’Viasz Malone, Aslan Jones and Devan Whitsett.

Did you know? Fairfield dedicated the season to longtime Birmingham area coach Reginald McGary, who died in November. Ford and McGary were best friends.

“We know how much he meant to coach Ford,” Williams said. “We had to win for him.”

Where’s Brandon? Vigor defensive stopper Brandon Purifoy played just three minutes after hurting his ankle on Wednesday.

“It was a freak accident,” Jackson said. “He just took a bad step. The plan was for him to guard No. 3 (Jones), but he couldn’t go 100 percent. We put him in to start the second half and got back to normal, but I didn’t want to risk his health.”

They said it:

“We knew he was real athletic. We were just trying to contain him. It’s hard to stop a good player. We just didn’t want him to go off.” – Ford on trying to stop Vigor’s Terrel Johnson.

“They were tough. We knew that. I did like the matchup. There were some errors that we made that I thought could have put us in a better position. I felt like we could have gotten them had we stayed a little closer there in the fourth quarter.” – Jackson.