Paul Bryant gave itself a chance for a dramatic win in the Class 6A Boys semifinals on Wednesday in Birmingham.

Mountain Brook’s John Colvin took it away.

Colvin blocked a 3-point attempt by Adrian Wooley in the final seconds, preserving a 54-52 victory for the Spartans and sending them into another championship game later this week.

“I was just trying to get my hand in his face and make it a tough shot,” Colvin said. “I knew he was going to go for 3 and try to win it. I just jumped up and was able to block it.”

Mountain Brook (26-7) led by as many as 12 on several occasions in the second half, but Paul Bryant (22-13) kept whittling down the margin. Wooley’s two free throws with 35.3 seconds left cut the Spartan advantage to 54-51 and sparked a wild final half minute.

The Spartans turned it over twice in the backcourt and committed a foul in the last 30 seconds, while Paul Bryant grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds.

“It’s March madness,” Mountain Brook coach Tyler Davis said. “I watch these college games and these high school games. I’m not going to say I am upset at the result because we won, but we did some things we shouldn’t do. We should be able to close out a game better than we did, but Paul Bryant is a great team. They are well coached and have great players.”

Wooley hit another free throw with 7.0 seconds left, to cut the Paul Bryant deficit to 54-52. He missed the second, though Stampede coach Shon Peck-Love said it was not intentional.

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“We wanted to hit both and get a quick foul,” Peck-Love said.

Instead, Eric Grant grabbed an offensive rebound to give Paul Bryant one more chance. The Stampede inbounded from the baseline, but the ball went over Wooley’s head into the backcourt, disrupting the timing of the final play a bit.

Wooley recovered, still with plenty of time, and drove to the top of the key where he attempted the game-winning 3-pointer.

“I really wanted to fake up and go to the corner,” Wooley said. “But when the ball went back to halfcourt, I had to make a play. In my mind, I wanted to shoot the shot and win the game.”

Davis said he was just thinking, “Please miss this and let’s move on.”

Colvin’s block started the Mountain Brook celebration.

Star of the game: Colvin not only made the play of the game on defense, but he also led the Spartans offensively. He scored 16 points, hitting 4-of-6 3-pointers.

“It’s pretty easy with these guys around me,” he said. “If Ty (Davis) is not shooting great, he always finds me in the corner when I’m open. It’s the most unselfish team. We play for each other. Today, it was me making the shots, but it could have been anyone.”

Stat sheet: Mountain Brook — Julius Clark followed Colvin with 14 points and nine rebounds. Jackson Beatty had eight points. Davis was held to just five on 2-of-10 shooting. Paul Bryant – Jaycob Johnson finished with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3. Wooley followed with 14 points, six rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Marchello Perkins had 11 points and Marquis Nash 10.

By the numbers: Mountain Brook had a 36-26 rebounding advantage and hit 10-of-12 free throws. Paul Bryant went 9-of-26 from 3-point range and had a 14-2 advantage in fastbreak points.

Did you know? Mountain Brook will play for its seventh state title since 2013 on Saturday.

They said it:

“Every game you have a new role. Usually, my role is offense – shooting, passing, making plays for others. Today, the game called for defense.” – Ty Davis.

“I’m extremely proud of these guys. They had a tough season, up and down. No one really thought we would make it this far, but I told these guys I believed in them. We put together a schedule because we believed in them. We played Pinson Valley and Mountain Brook and Cullman, and it was for this purpose.” – Peck-Love.

Next up: Mountain Brook will play star freshman Caleb Holt and Buckhorn at 2:15 p.m. Saturday in the state finals. The Bucks beat McGill-Toolen in the day’s first semifinal.