Baker coach David Armstrong doesn’t worry too much when his team falls behind.

He has an ace in the hole.

“I will say this — It’s nice to know that no matter where we are or who we play, I have the best player on the floor,” Armstrong said Thursday afternoon.

That player, Auburn commit Labaron Philon, scored 32 points in the Class 7A South Regional semifinals as the Hornets dethroned reigning state champ Enterprise 53-41 at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery.

“He’s really good,” Armstrong said of reigning 7A Player of the Year. “At some point at halftime, I said, ‘Just find a way to win it. That’s all I care about.’ And he did.”

Philon broke a 39-39 tie midway through the fourth quarter with his only 3-pointer of the game. He followed that with a conventional three-point trip. Those two plays sparked a 14-0 Hornet run that put the game away.

“That is what he does,” Enterprise coach Rhett Harrelson said. “We were aware of him. Everyone is aware of No. 11. I thought we did a really good job for about three quarters. He just made the plays down the stretch, and we didn’t make any.”

No. 4 Baker, a final four team a year ago, has a chance to get back to Birmingham if it can knock off either Dothan or Area 1 rival Mary G. Montgomery at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. That second semifinal game was postponed Thursday due to the threat of inclement weather. It will be played Saturday afternoon at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex.

“I think we are more experienced than we were a year ago,” Armstrong said. “So, when we get down or get into an experience where we are struggling, we are not out of any game. It doesn’t matter if we are down 10, down 15. It doesn’t matter. We are capable of coming back. The kids do a great job of staying in the gameplan. Doing what they are taught to do. Doing the right things.”

The Hornets (25-6) trailed 21-20 at the half and 33-32 entering the fourth. The Enterprise lead ballooned to 36-32 on Mykel Johnson’s 3-pointer to start the final period. But Baker outscored the Wildcats 21-5 from that point on to claim the victory. Philon scored 12 of those 21 points for his team.

“It was a great experience,” he said. “The new guys on our team probably haven’t adjusted yet so we came out a little slow, but we found the energy after half. We picked it up and won the game.”

Star of the game: It was clearly Philon. Despite not scoring in the first quarter, he went 12-of-23 from the field and was a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line. He also had seven rebounds, four steals and two assists.

“He’s the best player I’ve coached against,” Harrelson said. “I know I haven’t been doing it that long. He is very, very talented. He has the ability to get the ball on the opposite baseline and get to the other basket in a blink of an eye. It’s unbelievable how quick he gets from one end of the floor to the other. He’s just tough to gameplan against.”

Stat sheet: Baker – Josh Flowers finished with 10 points and four rebounds. He also hit a big 3-pointer in the final quarter to give his team a lead. Derrick Flowers added 6 rebounds. Enterprise – Jordan Hines had 12 points and six rebounds. William Wadsworth had nine points on 3-of-11 shooting from 3. Eric Winters had eight rebounds. Keion Dunlap had seven rebounds and two steals.

By the numbers: Baker shot 39.6 percent from the field (19-of-48), 14 percent from 3 (3-of-21) and 75 percent from the foul line (12-of-16). Enterprise shot 32 percent from the field (15-of-46), 25 percent from 3-point range (4-of-16) and 53.8 percent from the foul line (7-of-13). The Wildcats outrebounded Baker 37-28. Enterprise hit 1 of its last 12 field goal attempts.

They said it:

“We started slow. The zone was giving us some problems. Obviously, it is hard to shoot in this place. It’s hard to get your rhythm going. We struggled a little early shooting. We figured out something at the half to get a little separation and get to the goal more and that allowed us to get in it, and we matched it up with the press in the fourth quarter. They started giving us the ball a little better. We rebounded really well in the fourth quarter.” – Armstrong.

“That is kind of who we’ve been. We’ve really struggled to score the ball. I knew going into the fourth we were going to have to hit some shots and score some points because we had done such a good job on No. 11. I expected them to get hot and hit some shots and 11 really took over.” – Harrelson on Baker’s fourth-quarter run and Philon’s play.

“It doesn’t bother me. I’ve been going through it my whole life.” – Philon said of the good-natured razzing from the Enterprise fans.