Terre Haute South and Mooresville met in the first game of the Terre Haute North sectional Tuesday evening. The two teams faced each other early in December with South walking away with the 58-44 victory. That was a distant memory as the teams clashed with postseason dreams on the line.

It was a slow start with Mooresville being extremely patient on the offensive end, while each team did not shoot particularly well to begin the game. IUPUI commitment Jaylen Minnett kicked off the scoring for South. He knocked down two three-pointers in the opening quarter to give South the advantage.

South began the second period with five quick points behind Minnett and junior guard Jesse Brown. South extended its lead to 22-11 halfway through the second quarter. Brown was a major part of that as he scored eight points in the stanza including a couple of three-pointers.

There were multiple times in the second half that it looked like Terre Haute South was going to open up a big lead. It reached 10 or 12 points a couple times and Mooresville answered back each time. Landon Harder scored six points in the third quarter to help Mooresville stay in the game.

South took a 13 point lead to the fourth quarter. That was cut into quickly by Mooresville. Senior forward Luke Kenney had a strong fourth quarter. His toughness and effort in the paint helped Mooresville get moving in the right direction. Mooresville also got a lift from steady scorer KC Earls. He scored seven of his 17 points in the final quarter.

Despite the inspired play by Kenney and Earls, South held a six-point lead in the fourth quarter. Mooresville played a zone defense and South took a passive approach on the offensive end against it down the stretch. That worked into Mooresville's favor as they were able to force turnovers on three straight possessions.

With under a minute left in the game and the score tied, South missed an open three-pointer then recovered the ball before calling a timeout with 30 seconds left. After the timeout, South turned the ball over leading to a layup attempt by Cameron Harris. He missed the first but made the second to give Mooresville the 46-45 lead with seven seconds left.

There were few fouls called in the game and that worked in the advantage of Mooresville greatly as they had two fouls to give with only seven seconds left. Mooresville gave two consecutive fouls which melted the clock down to 2.1 seconds.

Two seconds was too much time. Jaylen Minnett, while fading out of bounds, buried a three-pointer as the buzzer sounded to give Terre Haute South the 48-46 victory. The shot can be seen here.

Minnett finished with 17 points. Jesse Brown ended with 14. Matt Deady added nine and DeAvion Washington tallied six points and eight rebounds. In the loss, KC Earls had 17 points.

South will play Brownsburg in the first semifinal on Friday night at Terre Haute North.