Baker’s Desmond Williams, who got poked and blinded in an eye at last year’s regionals and was making only 64 percent of his free throws this season, somehow buried 15 straight in a show of pressurized perfection to bring the Hornets to the verge of a comeback from a 15-point deficit against Fairhope Friday.

But even that wasn’t enough, not when the Pirates’ Marc Howard saw a chance to win the game come unexpectedly into his hands, then watched his rushed baseline drive with the clock dying gyrate tantalizingly around the basket, using all 18 inches of its width — first in, then out — as everyone in Garrett Coliseum held their breath.